Passengers aboard the Boeing 737-900 commercial aircraft of United Airlines Flight UA220, flying over Cape Canaveral in Florida, noticed an amazing rare sight. From the porthole, they could see the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
Aboard @United Airlines 220 flying over Cape Canaveral as a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts off. pic.twitter.com/klSqmbfPHt
— Nick Leimbach (@nleimbach) November 26, 2022
A video of this spectacle was published by NBC photojournalist Nick Leimbach. He captured a tiny white rocket taking off and gaining altitude at an amazing speed, leaving behind a huge cloud of spent rocket fuel. He discovered a very rare perspective that allows him to see this incredible spectacle from a different angle, which is not available to everyone.
“One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.,” Leimbach wrote.
At the right time in the right place
Flight UA220 took off on November 26 from Dulles International Airport in Washington at 12:25 p.m. local time and landed about 3.5 hours later in Georgetown in the Cayman Islands. Its flight path perfectly crossed NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at the right moment.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from launch complex 39A at 02:20 p.m. local time. The launch vehicle put the Dragon spacecraft into orbit without a crew. The purpose of the mission is to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.
It is not every day that passengers of commercial airliners can observe such an amazing sight. Although, given Leimbach’s profession, it was probably not entirely by chance that he was in the right place at the right time.
Earlier, we reported on how the spectacular launch of the Falcon 9 distracted the audience’s attention from the failure of the SLS rocket.
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