About the Photos

About the Astronaut Photos

Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960’s.  Crew members in space have taken nearly 750,000 photographs with Hasselblad, Linhof, Rolleiflex, and Nikon hand-held film cameras.  Beginning in 1995, digital cameras were introduced on Shuttle missions.  Today on the International Space Station all Crew Earth Observations (CEO) imagery is taken with a digital camera (see Munich International Airport, Germany for resolution information).   The majority of these photographs are Earth-looking views.  The remaining images show satellite deployments and activities outside the space craft (EVA’s--extra-vehicular activities). 

At right is Bora Bora, one of the Society Islands, taken from the International Space Station (ISS006-E-38878).

Astronauts are trained in scientific observation of ecological, geological, geographic, oceanographic, environmental, and meteorological phenomena.  They are also instructed in the use of photographic equipment and techniques.  Preflight training helps the astronauts make informed decisions on which areas and phenomena to photograph.  Specific areas of interest are selected by scientists before each six-month flight.

The astronauts receive messages from CEO scientists to help them locate these sites of interest.  At left is Increment 6 Astronaut Don Pettit at the optical window in the Destiny module taking photographs of Africa (ISS006-E-13993).