Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket will be visible in Irish skies just before 10pm tonight.
2020 has been quite a year especially for star-gazers and astronomy enthusiasts who have been given a number of reasons to keep their eyes on the sky over the past few months – including three supermoons, a meteor shower, and now the historic launch of a SpaceX spacecraft.
Set to make history, this is the first time ever that a private company will launch a commercially built rocket to bring humans into space. Launching from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida this evening, Elon Musk’s SpaceX will also be visible across Irish skies later tonight as it makes its way to the International Space Station.
Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon will lift off from Launch Complex 39A – the same place Saturn V launched humanity to the Moon and from where the first and final Space Shuttle missions lifted off pic.twitter.com/wOSsbCRqi7
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 25, 2020
According to Astronomy Ireland, Irish people will be able to catch a glimpse of the spacecraft just below the moon at approximately 9:53 pm tonight – a mere 20 minutes after its launch over in the US.
“Astronomy Ireland is predicting that at 9:53pm the world’s first privately built spacecraft will cross Irish skies, just below the moon, 2o minutes after being launched from Florida.”
Met Eireann predicts that skies will be clear so Irish people will be treated to unobstructed views of the NASA spacecraft – with the only threat coming from weather conditions across the Atlantic after NASA warned yesterday that there was a 40 per cent chance the mission could be cancelled due to bad weather.
Keep your eyes peeled.
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