Roscosmos Tu-204-300 Aircraft Ascended to 10 km to Observe Lunar Eclipse

The world's first astronomical flight on an aircraft took place

Roscosmos used the Tu-204-300 aircraft of the Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center to observe the total lunar eclipse over the Arctic Circle on September 7.

Among the expedition members was the commander of the cosmonaut detachment, Hero of Russia Oleg Kononenko.

At an altitude of 10 km, the special flight participants saw the Moon turn crimson red. This effect occurs due to the refraction of sunlight in the atmosphere.

During my time on the ISS, I took a huge number of pictures. This is an amazing perspective, but you can also see the beauty of a lunar eclipse from Earth. Interestingly, I saw eclipses several times from the ISS.
Oleg Kononenko, cosmonaut

The popular science expedition was organized by the Guild "Frontiers of Science" with the support of Roscosmos. In May 2025, the Tu-204-300 performed its first official flight to the airport of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region. The plane was greeted with a water salute in the form of an arch.

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Sources
OAK

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