The International Space Station celebrated its 100,000th orbit of Earth, an incredible feat that took almost 18 years to complete.
To celebrate the occasion, astronaut Jeff Williams created and shared an incredible time-lapse that shows the sunrise on Earth as seen from the International Space Station.
Good Morning! Sunrise bursting on the scene followed by beautiful ocean sun glint. We get 16 of these every day! https://t.co/UKanwP0Bv8
— Jeff Williams (@Astro_Jeff) May 13, 2016
As can be seen in the 33-second video, the International Space Station gets a front row seat to one of the most incredible scenes — the sun breaking the crest of Earth’s horizon and glimmering off the oceans as it continues to rise.
Sixteen times a day, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station get to see this view as they fly around the Earth at 4.76 miles per second.
Over the course of its 18-year history, the International Space Station has housed more than 220 astronauts and cosmonauts from 18 different countries. Throughout its tenure, the ISS has traveled more than 2.6 billion miles – enough to make 10 round trips to Mars and almost enough to reach Neptune, the farthest known planet in our Solar System.
Currently, there are six astronauts from three different countries on the International Space Station: Jeff Williams and Tim Copra from the United States, Yuri Malenchenko, Oleg Skripochka, and Alexey Ovchinin from Russia and Tim Peake of England.
In addition to the above time-lapse, Jeff Williams also shared the following video as a “tribute to international partnership made up of the European Space Agency, Russia, Canada, Japan and the United States.”
