Incredible space vine: A spaceship burning up on re-entry

Image: NASA/ESA/Alex Gerst

Sunday, August 31, 2014, 1:45 PM -

Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has had to resupply the International Space Station using disposable space capsules.

Aside from the Russian Soyuz capsules, NASA has contracted some of the resupply missions out to private companies, including Orbital Sciences, which made the Cygnus capsule you see burning up in the shot above.

European Space Agency astronaut Alex Gerst took that photo in mid-August, after that Cygnus detached from the station on August 15, burning up two days later according to Slate.

Whereupon Gerst's NASA colleague, Reid Wiseman, proceeded to upstage him.

First, Reid, who is apparently in love with Vine, posted a six-second vid of the capsule being released, then blasting off into the void:

Of course it's sped up, which makes it look even better.

Then there's the moment the capsule disintegrated, leaving a fiery trail across the sky as the fragments blazed through the atmosphere.

And Wiseman captured that too:

Wiseman has been busy making a name for himself with his orbital social media savvy. He's credited with the first vine from space, and he did a timelapse of the International Space Station passing through an active aurora.

Watch that awesome video below: