Orbiting 250 miles above Earth, the views from the International Space Station (ISS) are second to none, and always make a huge impact on astronauts lucky enough to stay there.
NASA’s Zena Cardman, who returned from the ISS in January after a visit lasting just over five months, this week shared a gorgeous time lapse (below) showing “a little of everything,” including sunset, lightning storms, air glow, moon glint, stars, and sunrise, and even a docked Dragon spacecraft bathing in the ever-changing light.
“The space station rarely makes big changes to its orientation, but we were lucky to experience such maneuvers (flipping around to fly butt-first, then flipping back again) before and after each CRS-33 reboost,” Cardman wrote in her post, referring to how the station is occasionally nudged to a higher orbit by a docked spacecraft to counteract atmospheric drag that gradually lowers its altitude.
“This 60x speed time lapse was one of my favorites since it captures a little of everything — sunset, lightning storms, air glow, moon glint, stars, and sunrise — as we did one (actually very slow) orbital cartwheel from Atlantic to Pacific.”
The @Space_Station rarely makes big changes to its orientation, but we were lucky to experience such maneuvers (flipping around to fly butt-first, then flipping back again) before and after each @spacex CRS-33 reboost. This 60x speed timelapse was one of my favorites since it… pic.twitter.com/7IsZnb1G7G
The station is orbiting Earth at about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph), circling the planet around 16 times in every 24-hour period. That means astronauts aboard the ISS get to experience 16 sunsets and 16 sunrises during that period.
Whether light or dark, many astronauts like to head to the seven-window Cupola during their time off, grabbing a camera to get some shots of Earth or set up a time lapse.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet even published a book showcasing his impressive work. Pesquet planned his time aboard the ISS carefully, taking breaks from science work when he knew the station would be passing over a visually striking part of Earth. Camera in hand, the astronaut would capture breathtaking shots before sharing them on social media.
American astronaut Don Pettit has also earned a reputation for his stunning visual work captured aboard the ISS, with some of his more surreal images also receiving much praise.
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.