Orbiting 250 miles above Earth, the views from the International Space Station (ISS) are unmatched and always leave a big impression on astronauts lucky enough to stay there.
NASA’s Zena Cardman, who returned from the ISS in January after a just over five-month visit, shared a beautiful time-lapse this week (below) that shows “a little bit of everything,” including sunset, thunderstorms, airglow, moonshine, stars and sunrise, and even a docked Dragon spacecraft bathing in the ever-changing light.
“The space station rarely makes major changes to its orientation, but we have been fortunate to experience such maneuvers (turning around to fly butt-first and then turning back again) before and after each CRS-33 restart,” Cardman wrote in her post, referring to how the station is occasionally pushed into a higher orbit by a docked spacecraft to counteract atmospheric drag that gradually reduces its altitude.
“This 60x speed time lapse was one of my favorites because it captures a little bit of everything – sunset, thunderstorms, airglow, moonshine, stars and sunrise – just as we did an (actually very slow) orbital dash from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
The station orbits the Earth at a speed of about 28,000 km/h and orbits the planet about 16 times in 24 hours. This means that astronauts on board the ISS can experience 16 sunsets and 16 sunrises during this period.
Whether it’s light or dark, many astronauts enjoy going to the seven-window dome in their free time and grabbing a camera to snap a few shots of Earth or do a time-lapse.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet even published a book showcasing his impressive work. Pesquet planned his time aboard the ISS carefully, taking breaks from scientific work when he knew the station would fly over a visually conspicuous part of the Earth. With camera in hand, the astronaut captured stunning shots before sharing them on social media.
American astronaut Don Pettit has also made a name for himself for his stunning visual works shot aboard the ISS, with some of his more surreal images also receiving high praise.
