• Question: can you see fireworks from space?

    Asked by gissanekwh to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 20 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      I don’t think fireworks would get high enough to be seen from outer space. However the first time I flew on an aeroplane was on the evening of bonfire night and I saw the fireworks going off from Birmingham from above as we were taking off – quite a weird sight.

    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Hello! My work colleague Pam Triggs says:

      When Gordon Cooper in May 1963 went into space when he was at 100miles altitude, he reported seeing individual houses and the smoke from their chimneys in Tibet therefore you would be able to see fireworks from space if they were large enough.

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      If they were very very big ones – not the cheap imported fireworks people get from poundstretcher.

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