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Watching Meteors From the Space Station

Earth from International Space Station with meteor visible and solar array at right
Astronaut Ron Garan tweeted this image from the International Space Station in August, 2011, writing, “What a `Shooting Star’ looks like from space, taken yesterday during Perseid Meteor Shower.” A special camera to record meteor showers will launch to the station aboard SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft, currently scheduled to launch on June 28, 2015.

Astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 28 flight engineer, tweeted this image from the International Space Station in August, 2011 with the following caption: “What a `Shooting Star’ looks like from space, taken yesterday during Perseid Meteor Shower.”

A special camera to record meteor showers will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft, currently scheduled to launch on June 28, 2015, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Meteor investigation should be installed in the station’s Window Observational Research Facility by the end of July, enabling scientists to learn more about the composition and behavior of asteroids and comets that cross paths with Earth. The investigation’s camera is programmed to record known major meteor showers during its two-year orbit and could spot unpredicted showers as well.

Image Credit: NASA