Recent photos from the International Space Station’s Expedition 53 crew show wildfires burning in Southern California, expansive views of the Himalayas, cities by night and day, and colorful vistas of sites around the world.
The space station orbits around 250 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, on a path that takes it between 51.6 degrees north and south latitude on each 90-minute trip around the planet.
These images captured from over the last three months were shared by the station’s crew on social media, or posted on NASA’s website. The captions were written by NASA, or one of the station crew members.
The spectacular aurora borealis, or the “northern lights,” over Canada is sighted from the space station near the highest point of its orbital path. The station’s main solar arrays are seen in the left foreground. Credit: NASAThis night time view of southern Europe prominently features the “boot” of Italy, the home of current Expedition 53 crew member Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency. Credit: NASAMizuna is pictured being cultivated inside the Veggie facility for the Veg-03 botany experiment. Future long-duration missions will look to have crew members grow their own food, so understanding how plants respond to microgravity is an important step toward that goal. Credit: NASAFlight Engineer Joe Acaba installs botany gear for the Veggie facility to demonstrate plant growth in space for the Veg-03 experiment. Credit: NASAThe Southern California wildfires could be seen by the International Space Station crew. NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed the plumes of smoke and shared the images with his followers on social media, writing, “Thank you to all the first responders, firefighters, and citizens willing to help fight these California wildfires.” Credit: NASAThe Southern California wildfires could be seen by the International Space Station crew. NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed the plumes of smoke and shared the images with his followers on social media, writing, “Thank you to all the first responders, firefighters, and citizens willing to help fight these California wildfires.” Credit: NASA“Hola #Barcelona! // Good morning Barcelona!” — ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Credit: NASA/ESA“Whether from below, above or way above, London is a unique and captivating city.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Haircut Saturday.” — NASA astronaut Joe Acaba“This is #Patagonia. The photos were taken as part of the Uragan experiment. According to this experiment, we taking photos the glacier of Patagonia. The scientists analyses this photos and note the dynamic of deglaciation.” — Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy“Mount #Fuji located on Honshu Island. Mount Fuji’s exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of #Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers.” — Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy“When we take a picture of somewhere on Earth we are unfamiliar, @Astro_Sabot (Mark Vande Hei) shows how we look it up and learn where we were.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Since we live in 0-G we don’t need a selfie stick to shoot the perfect crew picture.” — ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli“Some new photos of forest #fires in Southern #California…” — Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy“The caldera of Pico de Fogo pokes up through the haze on Fogo Island.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“One night in Bangkok, or at least over Bangkok, alive with fishing boats in the waters and a lightning flash to show the size of a storm.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Good Morning Dallas & Houston. God Bless Texas!” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“The #supermoon rising over Mongolia. Good night from @Space_Station.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Good morning from @Space_Station. Karachi, Pakistan” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Good morning from @Space_Station. Istanbul, Turkey” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“Dominican Republic and Haiti show off their beauty in the setting sun.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“From the ground or from orbit, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is an amazingly unique feature on our planet.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik“With the blackness of space above, far away on our horizon, the impressive vertical of Mt. Everest/Sagarmatha stands out.” — NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik
In a complex bit of orbital surgery, two spacewalking astronauts cut into a $2 billion cosmic ray detector Friday, venting away life-sustaining carbon dioxide refrigerant and then snipping eight coolant lines the size of soda straws to prepare the high-tech “patient” for a coolant pump transplant.
Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, setting a new record as the world’s most experienced female spacewalker, floated outside the International Space Station Thursday and continued work to set up a second docking port for U.S. crew ferry ships. They also installed an upgraded computer relay box and protective shielding before calling it a day.
Boeing said Tuesday the first orbital test flight of its commercial crew capsule, named the Starliner, will be delayed until August “in order to avoid unnecessary schedule pressure” and give priority on the Atlas 5 rocket’s manifest to a U.S. Air Force communications satellite. NASA confirmed Wednesday that officials have approved an extension of the Starliner’s first crewed mission to last up to several months.
