Heading up to the Space Station

The Soyuz spacecraft launched flawlessly yesterday at 7:12 am EST from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  On board are NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Russian Cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.  They will be rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station tomorrow morning.

NASA's New Video of Earth at Night

An Amazing Video of Earth Seen from Space

This is my favorite video of scenes of earth taken from space at the true speed of the "satellites" (space station and space shuttle) that the videos were taken from.  In other words, it's not time lapse photography or high speed video.

Thank You Neil Armstrong!

Neil Armstrong died at age 82 a few days ago on Satuday August 25th.  Among his many accomplishments, he performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space, was the first person to land a craft on the moon and the first human to step on the surface of the moon.  The above photo is of Neil Armstrong inside the Lunar Module as it rests on the lunar surface after the completion of his historic moonwalk with Buzz Aldrin.  Photo Credit: NASA  

Congratulations to the Mars Observers for their Successful Landing of Curiosity!

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The above image is one of the first taken by NASA's Curiosity Rover that landed on Mars early in the morning of August 6, 2012.

An Arctic View of Earth

"Blue Marble 2012 - Arctic View"  This view of Earth showing the Arctic, Europe and Asia was created from multiple shots taken on multiple orbits by the Suomi NPP Satellite.  Image Credit: NASA/GSFC

For an enlargable version of the above photo see Blue Marble 2012 - Arctic View.  To see enlargeable versions of the Blue Marble views of the Western and Eastern hemipheres go to  Blue Marble - Globe West and Blue Marble - Globe East respectively (both photos credit: NASA Earth Observation Team).  All 3 photos are from NASA's Visible Earth site: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov.

Three Earth Observers Head up to the Space Station

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko flawlessly launched at 9:40 pm CST July 14th aboard the Soyuz TMA-O5M spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan beginning their two-day journey to the International Space Station for a four month mission.

Photo Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Photo Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, left, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko, center, and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, right, leave the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan for their morning launch at 8:40 am, July 15, 2012 (Kazakhstan time).

The Earth at Night

"Earth at Night"  Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

This famous image of the lights of the earth at night was produced in the year 2000. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

A Rotating Color Globe with Current Infrared Satellite Imagery

The Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison produces a color globe that shows the current satellite infrared imagery of clouds around the Earth.  You can control the rotation of the globe by the controls located under the globe.  You can see the globe site by clicking here, but please note that on my computer the site works on Firefox and Explorer but does not work on Google Chrome and so you may have the same problem with your computer.

Real-Time/"Live" Views of Earth from the International Space Station

"STS-114 Picture of ISS"   The Backdrop is the Caspian Sea.  Taken from Space Shuttle Discovery in 2005.
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

You can get a live view of Earth from the International Space Station approximately 30% to 40% of the time, at best.  Click on Live ISS Stream from NASA.  There are five sites that I know of for tracking the Space Station and they are: Real Time Satellite Tracking, Heavens Above [occasionally shows other satellites instead of the Space Station], ISS Tracker, esa ISS Tracker and SPACE.cweb.NL.

Editor's Update 5/20/2014:  See "ISS HD Earthviewing Experiment" for high definition video from the ISS:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

"Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together"  Photo taken from Russian Soyuz TMA-20 - May 2011.
Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-133 crew member on Space Shuttle Discovery after undocking.
March 7, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on phot to enlarge it)

The International Space Station photographed by an STS-134 crew member on Space Shuttle Endeavor after undocking from the Space Station on May 29, 2011.  Credit: NASA.  (click on photo to enlarge it)

Two Amazing Views of Current Worldwide Cloud Cover

Two of the best sites for viewing the current cloud cover worldwide are Global Montage from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and World Satellite Infrared Imagery from Accuweather.com.

Welcome to EarthObserver.Net

"The Water Planet"  Credit: NASA  (click on photo to enlarge it)

Welcome to EarthObserver's new homepage.  This blog will cover the coolest views of Earth from space and it will also cover various items of interest involving the Earth's geography.  I may also discuss near earth objects and other interesting space topics once in a while.  For now, EarthObserver's main purpose is to cover current satellite views of Earth and they can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking on the first item on the above menu.