The blue marble and the blue planet are both well-known descriptions of the rock that is our home. But “Earthly eyeball”? That’s a new one.
But when viewed through the International Space Station’s Cupola module, that’s exactly how it looks — according to NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
Pettit posted his striking footage on social media on Tuesday. The American astronaut used a wide-angle lens to get the entirety of the seven-window Cupola module in the video, using the panels to frame Earth in a way that makes it look rather like — you guessed it — an eyeball.
Earthly eyeball; @Space_Station with a 360 degree view. pic.twitter.com/zWBErFSnNf
The image is just the latest in a string of impressive imagery shared by Pettit during his six-month stay aboard the space station.
Currently NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, the 69-year-old ISS inhabitant has become adept at capturing dramatic star trails using long exposures. Pettit has also shared some breathtaking shots of aurora as seen from way above Earth, and also managed to capture a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on its homeward journey at the end of the historic Polaris Dawn mission, which included the first commercial spacewalk.
Other photos by Pettit make parts of Earth resemble an artist’s canvas, including this remarkable image of rivers in the Amazon basin, and this one showing the Betsiboka River estuary in Madagascar.
Fans of Pettit’s space-based photography will be sad to learn that the astronaut will be heading back to terra firma this month.
Speaking last year about why he enjoys taking photos from 250 miles up, Pettit said: “Images from space help tell the story to people on Earth that don’t have the opportunity to go into space,” adding that alongside capturing memories of his time in orbit, “the photographs help complete the story of what it means for human beings to expand into space and expand into this frontier.”
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.