The Verge wrote that the GoPro was attached to a Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX — a company owned by Elon Musk — uses in several different ways.
The Falcon 9 has so far been used to bring cargo to the International Space Station or to guide satellites into orbit. However, the rockets’ journeys are essentially one-way trips, because no Falcon 9 has ever landed back on Earth in one piece. SpaceX is hoping to create reusable rockets, which will be called the Falcon Heavy should the designs work out.
Until then, the Falcon 9’s debris (the exterior coating that protects the rocket’s payload) provides some great visuals thanks to an attached GoPro camera. In the nearly two-minute video — musically backed by the graceful “Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss II — the debris begins to spin around, providing spectacular shots of outer space, stars, and of course the Earth. Towards the middle of the video viewers will get an especially interesting look at our blue planet.
Where the debris from this particular rocket ended up is anyone’s guess. In late May, an entrepreneur found a piece of a SpaceX rocket washed ashore in the Bahamas:
This may be as close as I get to my lifelong dream of visiting space (hopefully not though) via SpaceX elonmusk AgLsH74kN7
— Kevin Eichelberger (@kpe) May 29, 2015
This isn’t the first time a GoPro camera has shown off breathtaking views of space. Earlier this year, NASA released some great footage from one of its astronauts doing a spacewalk.