14 DAY TRIAL // The pilot of a transcontinental flight was able to capture a stunning image of a Russian space capsule reentering Earth's atmosphere on Monday, November 11. The airplane was flying from London to Singapore, but British Airways pilot Captain Simon Wijker spotted the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft as it burned its way to the steppes of Kazakhstan.
When Wijker sent his image to the ESA Communications Office at the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), in the Netherlands, officials from the organization thought that the debris trail was produced by the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite, which reentered Earth's atmosphere the same day.
However, the GOCE team said that the image did not depict their satellite. ESA officials then determined that the image actually showed the Russian-built space capsule plummeting towards Earth, after completing a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
In addition to ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, and Russian Mission Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, the spacecraft also carried the Olympic torch that will be used to inaugurate the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Sochi, Russia.