In addition to last night’s ethereal moonlit landing of the last Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Centre , NASA has tweeted this image of the space craft’s plasma trail during re-entry into the upper atmosphere as seen from the International Space Station.
It isn’t explained whether the red objects seen on the right hand horizon are Latin American cities or thunderstorms, but the ground track for the final approach crosses land north of Panama during peak thermal load.
Above the horizon the signs of the dawn twilight approaching Florida can be discerned.
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