Hurricane Laura observed from International Space Station

NASA commander Chris Cassidy shared views of Hurricane Laura captured Thursday as the International Space Station soared more than 250 miles over the dangerous storm while it churned across the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana.

Cassidy, the lone NASA astronaut on the station, tweeted the pictures Thursday as Hurricane Laura reached Category 4 strength on a track toward a landfall in southwestern Louisiana. The cyclone eventually strengthened with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph as it approached the Louisiana coast late Thursday.

“Stay safe everyone,” Cassidy tweeted.

Hurricane Laura was moving toward the north-northwest when Cassidy shared his pictures on Twitter. The cloud-free eye of the cyclone is visible in Cassidy’s photos.

Cassidy and his Russian crewmates — Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner — are in the final two months of their six-month expedition on the space station. The crew members are scheduled to return to Earth in October on their Russian Soyuz capsule, soon after the arrival of a fresh three-person crew on a new Soyuz spaceship Oct. 14.

Four additional astronauts are scheduled for launch to the orbiting research lab Oct. 23 aboard the first operational flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Credit: NASA/Chris Cassidy
Credit: NASA/Chris Cassidy
Credit: NASA/Chris Cassidy
Credit: NASA/Chris Cassidy

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