That streak of light breaking out of the “space barrier” around the Earth is the Space Shuttle Discovery, photographed by Droid 1, an Android phone lifted into space by a weather balloon.
Quest for Stars, a non-profit educational organization co-sponsored by Challenger Center for Space Science Education has launched weather-balloon-hoisted cameras into space before, but this time around, the group of students and educators wanted to capture the actual Shuttle launch from space. So they put together Robonaut-1 (no relation to Robonaut-2, the humanoid robot aboard the Shuttle itself) and sent it up 100,000 feet.
The pictures now being uploaded to Quest for Stars’ Facebook page were taken using an on-board HD Camera Phone Satellite (PHONESAT). The package also contained two Android phones, which shot video, which we’re hoping will be uploaded soon. [Quest for Stars]
