Cumbrian Sky

I've just seen something amazing and strangely beautiful in the sky, from here in Kendal: two points of light - one dazzlingly bright, one a lot fainter - skating silently across the sky, one trailing the other by the width of 4 fingers. To most people watching they'll not have seemed anything special, maybe just two planes flying close together, but for people who knew what they actually were they were a stunning sight.

Because the bright "star" was the International Space Station, and the fainter one, leading it across the sky, was "Jules Verne", the European Space Agency's unmanned cargo freighter.

Earlier today the two spacecraft were closer, a LOT closer. Jules verne was steered to within a couple of dozen feet of ISS, rehearsing the docking that will take place later this week. Here's how the "close approach" looked on NASA TV...

I've been watching the snight sky for more than 30 years now, have seen most things in that time, but it never, NEVER  fails to amaze and move me when I see the space station or space shuttle cutting through the heavens. And it always feels a bit more special to see the real hardware flying overhead like this, when I've been watching them on my computer just hours before...

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