NASA astronaut Jonny Kim has shared his first-ever time-lapse from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) — and it’s a real stunner.
The dramatic 68-second clip shows a changing view of Earth as the space-based facility orbits our planet at an altitude of about 250 miles.
“My first time-lapse,” Kim wrote in a social media post that included the video (below). Kim said he managed to nail it thanks to some time-lapse tips shared by fellow astronaut Nichole Ayers. “After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing,” Kim wrote. “Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a catch. And after catching my first fish, I think I’m hooked.”
My first time-lapse. Thanks to some instruction and tips from @Astro_Ayers, I caught my first aurora. After seeing the result, I told her this felt like fishing. Prepping the camera, the angle, the settings, the mount, then setting your timer and coming back to hope you got a… pic.twitter.com/RgEaq50E5p
The video shows the space station flying into the night, with city lights in Asia and Australia visible far below, and bright stars shining in the far distance. A short while later, a gorgeous aurora appears over the horizon before filling much of the frame. Toward the end of the clip, one of the station’s solar arrays also come into view.
Auroras are natural light displays in Earth’s sky, caused by charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. While also viewable from parts of Earth, astronauts on the ISS can also enjoy a unique view of this natural wonder. Indeed, for most astronauts, witnessing auroras is one of the highlights of their time in orbit.
Earlier this year, another NASA astronaut, Don Pettit, shared a dramatic view of an aurora, captured as the ISS flew directly over it.
Kim arrived at the space station with two Russian cosmonauts after launching aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in April this year. With another four months of his mission left to run, hopefully the American will have time to create more clips similar to his first outstanding effort.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.