Environment
An Endurance Astronaut's Gorgeous Views of Earth
Celebrate the halfway point of Scott Kelly’s 342-day journey in orbit with these knockout images.
On Tuesday, astronaut Scott Kelly hit the midpoint in his 342-day journey aboard the International Space Station. Along with Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko, he’s testing what a prolonged journey in space does to the body (spoilers: all your leg blood floats to your head and your poop becomes shooting stars).
During his weightless days and nights, Kelly has snapped some truly gnarly images of sprawling cities, dreamlike landscapes, and auroras flashing peacock colors over the planet’s glowing dome. To celebrate the astronaut’s slog—standard trips on the space station last four to six months—NASA has posted an album of photos that Kelly has tweeted over the year. The full thing is worth a look, but here’s a selection of the more-intense shots: