Featured Image Credit: VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO / Contributor / DrPixel / Getty
A NASA astronaut shared an unexpected and quite unique sight from space.
Loral O’Hara has been aboard the International Space Station for the past six months, preparing NASA for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Arriving at the ISS in September 2023, she’s been involved in research and scientific experiments that investigate the effects of microgravity on the human body.
During her time in orbit, she has also been capturing and sharing some unique perspectives of Earth. The 40-year-old shared a photo of what looks like a brightly lit cityscape that would make a cool out-of-Earth postcard.
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Funnily enough, these photos were actually of fishing fleets in the ocean, located in the Arabian Sea along India’s west coast, as well as the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea. But you can't deny the cool shot!
She tweeted alongside her photos on X: 'One thing I did not expect to see from space: the world’s fishing fleets.
'The multicolored arrays of light on the water are fishing boats. These are only two of many hot spots – the Arabian Sea along India’s west coast, and the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea, divided by Thailand and Malaysia.'
After more than six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the NASA astronaut returned to Earth last Saturday, landing in Kazakhstan alongside Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and the first Belarusian national space traveler, Marina Vasilevskaya.
Geography lover O'Hara uses her time in space to spot interesting things on Earth given her unique perspective.
'I love geography and maps and one of my favorite things about living on @Space_Station for six months has been getting to spot something interesting on Earth and then go look it up on the map,' O’Hara wrote.
'Months in, I find it so satisfying to be able to glance out the window and know instantly what part of the world we are flying over—to feel that sense of familiarity with the planet.'
With a mission duration of almost 204 days, completing 3,264 orbits and covering 86.5 million miles (140 million kilometers), O’Hara has become the 11th most experienced female astronaut in terms of flight time.
She has also just completed the fourth-longest space mission ever by a woman.
Now, O'Hara is taking part in the necessary training to readjust to Earth gravity again.
