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30 Photos Taken From The International Space Station That Are Literally Out Of This World
For thousands of years, people looked up at the night sky looking at the stars, seeking guidance, dreaming. While centuries passed with humans using the night sky for navigation or to record the passage of time, it was only in the last century that we actually started reaching for those stars, and not metaphorically.
The first human in space, the first person on the Moon, the first person to orbit the Earth… first big milestones in a tremendous journey for human spaceflight. And as humanity charts its space travel course towards Mars, people are orbiting the Earth as we speak, contributing to those plans of the future.
The International Space Station has been up in the low Earth orbit for over twenty years and has had 236 people from 18 countries (as of 14 March 2019) aboard. While all of them had scientific reasons to be there, they also took the chance to capture the breathtaking views of Earth from space that they witnessed. And luckily for us all, some of the astronauts shared some of their cool photos on social media. So, if you’re one of the people whose heart is drawn towards the stars or you just like pretty space views, check out a different perspective and see what we look like from the sky’s point of view. Oh, and don’t forget to comment and vote for these interesting photos!
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The ISS started as a joint project and there are 5 organizations taking part in it: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The first component of the ISS was launched in 1998 and only 2 years later, on 2 November 2000, the first long-term residents arrived at the station in low Earth orbit. The first expedition launched on October 31, 2000 and landed on March 21, 2001 with a crew of three: an American astronaut, William M. Shepherd, and two Russian cosmonauts, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. Expeditions refer to permanent ISS crews and exclude resupply missions and space tourists.
The current crew aboard the ISS is Expedition 60 commanded by Aleksey Ovchinin, who transferred from Expedition 59 together with American flight engineers, Nick Hague and Christina Koch. The remaining 3 members of the crew, Aleksandr Skvortsov, Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan, are scheduled to join them on the 20th of July, 2019. The expedition will last until October 2019 when Soyuz-MS-12 will undock from the station.
You take some amazing pictures, but I also appreciate your thoughtful commentary. Thank you for sharing.
The ISS is a microgravity and space environment research laboratory where the crews conduct various experiments in a number of fields (biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and others). The station is also used to test various flight components and systems required for missions to the Moon and Mars. One of the experiments conducted by the crew involved sending frozen mice embryos to the ISS to test the effects of radiation from the sun and cosmic sources. The embryos will then be sent back to Earth to be implanted into surrogate mothers where scientists would observe their lives and possible changes in their lifespan, cancer development, and gene mutations.
The current record holder and the person who spent the most time in space (879 days) is RKA cosmonaut Gennady Padalka who was aboard Mir, a space station that was operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia and was deorbited in 2001 and the ISS. The people who spent the longest time aboard the International Space Station are Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly who went on a year-long mission in March 2015 and spent 340.4 days in total aboard the spacecraft. Kelly was also part of the Astronaut Twin Study, where one twin brother spent a year in space while the other spent the same amount of time on Earth. NASA compared the data and found several long-lasting changes, including those related to alterations in DNA and cognition.
Love what they have to say about it, it gives the picture so much more meaning
Yes, it truly is and sad that most of us don't appreciate how lucky we are that we can call this home.
The Grand Canyon on the ground is pretty cool, but your version is far more awe-inspiring.
I wonder if they see hurricanes and say "Damn that coast is about to get wrecked."
Super cool photo. I love the ones of the astronauts doing space walks
Simply amazing! How incredible would it be to look up from your work to see this as your view? Stunning!
That's what google translator said: Last night in Japan time, I passed over Japan. There was a thin cloud, but the lights of the city were clearly understood. The support of everyone arrived well. Thank you! Even though the country of origin is different, all the crew members are working hard together as a representative of humanity
Translation: I spent about half a year in space, but getting up, eating, working, sleeping ... everyday is surprisingly normal. As the area of human activity, the universe will become more and more familiar, and more and more people will be active on the stage of the universe. Now it's your turn.
Karl The Fog was out of town... :D https://twitter.com/karlthefog
You can see photos LIVE from the ISS - They've been showing us live views from one of 4 cameras... and if it's dark, not to worry - the ISS will soon be in the sunlight as they travel around the Earth every 90 minutes! This is the link to the NASA live camera - https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190602.html
for all the morons who think the world is flat...... they need to spend some time here. Or up there :)
Truly stunning pictures of our beautiful flat Earth. Just kidding, these pictures are amazing and really show the beauty of our little blue world.
I've always loved photos of Earth from space, so naturally, I enjoyed every single one of them, with regrets that I am bound by the screen size and can't enjoy the majesty of the photos' original size and quality.
Thank you B.P. These are fantastic! Even just to see the photos is humbling. And wonderful. Is anyone else scared at the thought of doing a space walk?
I think we should live in space, and come down to earth to rejuvenate/for vacation
Good Lord there are a lot of photos... i was hoping for cool explosions.. or aliens.. or a trump balloon baby maybe.!
You can see photos LIVE from the ISS - They've been showing us live views from one of 4 cameras... and if it's dark, not to worry - the ISS will soon be in the sunlight as they travel around the Earth every 90 minutes! This is the link to the NASA live camera - https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190602.html
for all the morons who think the world is flat...... they need to spend some time here. Or up there :)
Truly stunning pictures of our beautiful flat Earth. Just kidding, these pictures are amazing and really show the beauty of our little blue world.
I've always loved photos of Earth from space, so naturally, I enjoyed every single one of them, with regrets that I am bound by the screen size and can't enjoy the majesty of the photos' original size and quality.
Thank you B.P. These are fantastic! Even just to see the photos is humbling. And wonderful. Is anyone else scared at the thought of doing a space walk?
I think we should live in space, and come down to earth to rejuvenate/for vacation
Good Lord there are a lot of photos... i was hoping for cool explosions.. or aliens.. or a trump balloon baby maybe.!
