67-year-old Don Pettit, The oldest astronaut Active at NASA, during three trips to the International Space Station (ISS)—in 2002, 2008, and 2011—Pettitt has earned a reputation as a skilled photographer, creating extraordinary images of the International Space Station, Earth, and beyond.
Pettit, who describes himself as an “engineer by education, scientist by profession, and explorer by heart,” continues to share his stunning photos on Twitter and Instagram, raving many of his followers on social media platforms.
Check out this image, for example, taken during ISS Expedition 30, a six-month mission that began in December 2011, Digitartlends reported.
Shared on Twitter, the image shows star trails above Earth.
Showcasing mangrove forests off the coast of India, Petit says in a caption accompanying the image: “Sunlit specular reflections from the surface of the water give off an intense patch of light that not only distinguishes between where the water is and what is not, but can also show surface ripples caused by surface flow .
In another stunning example of his skills at Photographythis shot shows the sunset from inside the space station’s Cupola, a module of seven windows from which many astronauts who visit the International Space Station take their pictures of Earth.
This time shows an erupting volcano (in near infrared) in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region. Captured by Pettit during his recent mission to the International Space Station, the magenta regions show healthy forests, while the gray regions indicate where the eruption devastated surrounding areas.
Pettitt says cities at night are one of his favorite sights to capture.
The image shows Spain and Portugal, with the bright lights of Madrid and Lisbon, among many other urban areas, clearly visible.
Another astronaut who made an impact with his photography was Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. During two missions to the International Space Station — the latest in 2021 — Pesquet has managed to take many beautiful pictures of Earth, though, as he once explained, getting those shots takes a lot of preparation.
