The International Space Station’s Cupola module is fashionable amongst astronauts as its seven home windows — six across the aspect and one on the highest — provide one of the best views of Earth and past. It’s why NASA calls it “the window to the world.”

While us people down right here on terra firma are sometimes handled to a few of the beautiful Earth imagery that astronauts snap on their cameras whereas gazing out from the Cupola, it’s uncommon to see {a photograph} that’s wanting again towards the module.

But in current days, NASA shared such a shot, with the pleasant picture (beneath) exhibiting area station crew members Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins peering out from the Cupola.

Judging by the angle and evaluating it with one other picture captured final 12 months, it appears that evidently the image was taken from inside Russia’s Nauka module, which arrived on the station in July 2021.

Note the presence of the exterior shutters that defend the Cupola’s home windows from any tiny meteoroids and area particles that come its manner. The shutters, which maneuver into place when the Cupola isn’t in use, additionally cease photo voltaic radiation from heating up the Cupola whereas on the similar time stopping inner warmth from escaping. You can see the shutters in motion within the video beneath.

To see the Cupola from the within, try this picture from 2015 exhibiting retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, who right here is carrying a pair of spectacles to guard his eyes from the solar’s rays.

Hines and Watkins have been on the area station since April and are as a consequence of fly house aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft a while in October. During their time aboard the orbiting outpost, the pair have been working with different crew members on a slew of science experiments, and in addition aiding with spacewalks and managing the arrival and departure of assorted spacecraft. Here the Cupola additionally performs an essential position because it comprises the controller tools for the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, which is usually wanted to catch visiting spacecraft to assist them safely dock.

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