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This photo was taken from the International Space Station on May 9, 2013, looking across the southwestern tip of the country. The image focuses on the mountainous Western Cape, dominated by the Great Escarpment, a 5,000-kilometer long mountain chain that marks the edge of the African plateau. The Cape of Good Hope hooks out from the mainland, with the city of Cape Town coloring the top in cement gray. To the east is Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.

ISS, Orbit of the Earth

August 2015

On July 26, 2017, a member of the Expedition 52 crew aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of one of the 16 sunrises they experience every day, as the orbiting laboratory travels around Earth. One of the solar panels that provides power to the station is seen in the upper left.

The stations solar arrays produce more power than it needs at one time for station systems and experiments. When the station is in sunlight, about 60 percent of the electricity that the solar arrays generate is used to charge the stations batteries. The batteries power the station when it is not in the Sun.

One of the most recognizable points on the Earth for astronauts to photograph is the Bahamas, captured in striking images many times from the vantage point of the International Space Station. Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Randy Bresnik of NASA took this photo on Aug. 13, 2017.

The cauliflower-like formations above the flat part of this cumulonimbus cloud represent overshooting cloud tops. Overshooting tops occur when forces push the clouds up through the troposphere, the lowest region of the atmosphere, and into the stratosphere. The warm central Pacific Ocean sea surface during the 2015-2016 El Ni�o lofted abnormal amounts of cloud ice and water vapor into the stratosphere, creating conditions similar to those that could occur on a larger scale in a warming world.

The thin line of Earths atmosphere and the blackness of space are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member on the International Space Station.

From his vantage point in low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik pointed his camera toward the rising Moon and captured this beautiful image on August 3, 2017.

Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA photographed the glowing nighttime lights of an aurora from his vantage point in the International Space Stations cupola module on June 19, 2017. Part of the stations solar array is also visible.

ISS, Orbit of the Earth

June 19, 2017

Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation. Earlier the STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews concluded 9 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 2:53 p.m. (CDT) on March 25, 2009.

Space Shuttle Discovery, Orbit of the Earth

March 25, 2009

Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA shared photos of a glowing green aurora seen from his vantage point 250 miles up, aboard the International Space Station. This aurora photo was taken on June 26, 2017.

On April 3, 2017, the student-controlled EarthKAM camera aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of a favorite target -- the Grand Canyon -- from low Earth orbit. The camera has been aboard the orbiting outpost since the first space station expedition began in November 2000 and supports approximately four missions annually.

The Sally Ride Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (Sally Ride EarthKAM) program provides a unique educational opportunity for thousands of students multiple times a year. EarthKAM is an international award-winning education program, allowing students to photograph and analyze our planet from the perspective of the International Space Station. Using the Internet, students control a special digital camera on the orbiting laboratory to photograph Earths coastlines, mountain ranges and other interesting geographical topography.

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer photographed the SpaceX Dragon capsule as it reentered Earths atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 8:12 a.m. EDT, July 3, 2017. Fischer commented, "Beautiful expanse of stars-but the �long� orange one is SpaceX-11 reentering! Congrats team for a successful splashdown & great mission!"

A variety of technological and biological studies conducted on the International Space Station are returning in Dragon. The Fruit Fly Lab-02 experiment seeks to better understand the effects of prolonged exposure to microgravity on the heart. Samples from the Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for osteoporosis will return as part of an investigation using rodents as models to test a new drug that can both rebuild bone and block further bone loss, improving crew health. The Cardiac Stem Cells experiment investigated how microgravity affects stem cells and the factors that govern stem cell activity.

The Dragon spacecraft launched June 3 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA�s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and arrived at the station June 5.