This past Sunday, the ISS sailed in front of the sun, and was captured in a fantastic display showcasing our smallness in the universe and the grandness of the center of our solar system. After sending back astounding images of the Moon, the ISS has once again shown us the beauty of the galactic bodies that surround us.
The image was released by NASA on Tuesday, and combines five different frames to depict the ISS as it cruised before the star. Moving at about five miles per second, it didn’t take long for the space station to shuffle across the sun. The image was captured by Bill Ingalls, senior NASA photographer, from Shenandoah National Park, Front Royal, Virginia. Ingalls is also responsible for taking stunning captures of the moon this past August.
The Most Experienced Space Flier Comes Home
The ISS travels about 250 miles above the Earth, carrying a crew of nine, including NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who will return to Earth on Friday as the most experienced space flier in the world, boasting a whopping 879 days in orbit. Kelly and fellow cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will continue on their journey – a year-long mission currently halfway through its trajectory.
Missions To Mars Might Bring Even Better Data
During a press conference on Tuesday, Kelly confessed that he thought the mission might be easier if their time was spent traveling to Mars, where many space enthusiasts and experts believe the next bout of great discoveries lie. Kelly, being halfway through his journey, states that in some ways, a lot of what they’re going to be doing is similar to what has already been done. However, he expresses plenty excitement for those astronauts and cosmonauts who will get to cruise past the face of Mars one day. Other crew members of the ISS include astronaut Kjiell Lindgren, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Volkov, as well as Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and Kazakhstan cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov.
As part of the short-term taxi crew, Padalka will return with Mogensen and Aimbetov aboard the Russian Soyuz capsule this Friday.
***Hey, amateur photographers! Try your luck and attempt to snap an image of the ISS using NASA’s Spot the Station site, which will provide updates detailing when the orbiting lab will be visible.***
