Austin,
Texas
High-resolution
image (103 Kb)
It was Texas
hot when Expedition 7 NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu captured this
view of the capital city of Austin in late July. A wider
view of Austin, taken with a 400 mm lens on Aug. 6, 2003, is
also available.
Austin is an
expanding city in the Texas Hill Country. A few decades ago, Austin
was known as a place where University of Texas students and state
politicians co-existed along the banks of the Colorado River, which
is seen snaking along the lower left of the image. Today, the exploding
population -- 44% growth between 1990 and 2000 -- and increasing
development stress local resources like water, green space and transportation
networks, prompting city planners to think through scenarios for
future development.
Documenting
city environments and city footprints over time is one of the science
objectives of the Crew
Earth Observations payload on the International Space Station.
Astronauts have always enjoyed observing cities around the world.
These images of Austin provide a 2003 baseline for monitoring its
regional development and growth.
Astronaut photograph
ISS007-E-11256
was taken July 29, 2003, with a Kodak DCS760 digital camera equipped
with an 800mm lens. It was provided by the Earth Sciences and Image
Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts
take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists
and the public and to make those images freely available on the
Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can
be viewed at the NASA-JSC Gateway
to Astronaut Photography of Earth.
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