astronaut

NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio just arrived on the ISS last week (with the Olympic torch in tow, no less), and even though he wasn't one of the astronauts who got to take the Olympic torch for a spacewalk/photo shoot, he wasted no time starting to upload photos from orbit.

All of the photos he's uploaded (gallery below) are awesome for one reason or another, but one in particular has gotten a bunch of attention. Uploaded yesterday, the photo above shows the view Mastracchio and his fellow astronauts have while exercising on the ISS.

If you've gone to see the blockbuster hit Gravity in theaters, you'll recall several moments when Sandra Bullock's character nearly lost something into the abyss of space -- be it a drill or a screw, everything needs to be strapped down because the slightest movement will send it careening into the unknown.

Well, that was Hollywood, but the real deal did actually happened to astronaut Sunita Williams back in 2006 when her camera just up and floated away from her during a 7-hour space walk.

One of the key challenges in environmental portraiture is finding the right balance between subject and setting. Zoom in too close, and you lose the magic of location. Too wide, and it's not a portrait anymore.

There are times, however, when you have to forget the rules. Like when you're orbiting 150 miles above the Earth and one of your colleagues is about to take the first ever untethered space walk.

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the surface of the Moon, it wasn’t technically a military triumph, but it might as well have been. On July 20, 1969, the United States effectively routed the Soviet Union in the Cold War conquest of space. The suits that the astronauts wore, with the Stars and Strips splashed across the left shoulder, left no doubt as to who the victors were.

Hey aspiring storm chasers -- want to dramatically improve your lightning shots? Try getting an elevated view. Like about 400 miles up. That's the approximate orbital height above Earth of the International Space Station, which is producing an impressive library of images showing what lightning looks like from way above.

NASA's Image of the Day today is a photograph showing one of the best photo op spots to be found on the International Space Station: the Cupola module. The image (shown above) shows astronaut and flight engineer Chris Cassidy pointing a Nikon DSLR and 400mm lens out one of the Cupola's windows to photograph some location on Earth 250 miles below him.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been serving as one of the International Space Station's resident photographers. Every day he posts beautiful photographs showing what our planet looks like from orbit to his Twitter account, @cmdr_hadfield.

Today the Canadian Space Agency released the video above, in which Hadfield takes the time to explain how to best photograph Earth's landscape from 400km (~250 miles) above the surface.

We shared this time-lapse by photographer Bruce W. Berry yesterday in a post about NASA astronaut photography from the International Space Station, but we'd like to share about it a little more about it since it's something that definitely deserves its own post.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery’s first launch was back on August 30th, 1984 from …

We've seen photography of the Moon, and photography taken on the Moon; people have even left photography gear up there. But this is the first we've heard of a photo from Earth, not only making it to the Moon, but staying there.

Fortunately, it was left there on purpose (Can you imagine? "Uhhh ... John ... we need to turn around, I forgot something..."), and the story behind the picture goes something like this.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is a bit of a space celebrity. Some of his hobbies include tweeting back and forth with William Shatner, posting recordings from space on SoundCloud, and even beaming down the occasional video of himself playing the guitar.

Photographs captured by astronauts on the International Space Station are in the public domain, so they're often remixed into gorgeous time-lapse videos. Italian filmmaker Giacomo Sardelli went a step beyond many of the ISS time-lapses we've seen by adding in more than just epic music: he included short audio messages recorded by the astronauts who worked in the space station.

For his project titled "Alienation," Italian photographer Graziano Panfili shot portraits of ordinary people wearing space suits in ordinary locations. Subjects are seen standing or sitting in places such as elevators, bedrooms, bathrooms, and basements.

Want to know how astronauts photograph in space? Just ask Donald Pettit, NASA astronaut and “amateur” photographer. Donald Pettit has called the International Space Station home for over 370 days, and in that time he’s captured some of the most mind-blowing photos of space – and Earth – we’ve ever seen.

Earlier this month we shared some neat photos of astronauts using DSLRs while on spacewalks outside the International Space Station. In case you're also wondering how the cameras are used inside the habitable satellite, we've carefully perused NASA's 2Explore Flickr photo stream in search of those photos as well, and have collected them here in one place for your viewing pleasure. They've got some pretty nice gear up in the ISS... lucky astronauts.

Neil Armstrong passed away this past Saturday at the age of 82. In addition to being the first man to walk on the moon, he was also the first photographer to set foot on that hunk of rock 238,900 miles away. Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin snapped a total of 122 70mm color photographs using modified Hasselblad 500EL cameras during their short visit on July 21, 1969. However, not all of them were pretty.

American Photo magazine writes that the photographic record left by those two men shows a very human picture of that first landing. Some of the "dud" photos show accidental shutter preses, focusing errors, lens flare, and even photobombed landscape shots.

There's an abandoned McDonalds in California that's stuffed with 48,000 pounds of 70mm tape. These tapes contain never-before-seen ultra-high-res photographs of the moon shot by the Lunar Orbiter project 40 years ago. Rather than ship the film back to Earth, scientists decided to scan them on the spaceship, beam them back losslessly, and then record the data onto magnetic tape. Not wanting to reveal the precision of its spy satellites, the US government decided to mark the images as classified.

Ever wonder what camera gear NASA astronaut Don Pettit uses to shoot his amazing photographs from the International Space Station? Here's a portrait of Don floating around on with his massive collection of Nikon DSLRs and lenses. How much of the gear can you identify?

It might not be very applicable to the vast majority of photographers, but NASA astronaut Captain Alan Pointdexter has written up a fascinating article over on Luminous Landscape in which he shares advice about doing photography in space. Taking photos on the ground is one thing, but imagine using not just the sun, but the earth itself as a source of light.

Here's a fascinating video by NASA that explains what auroras are and what they look like from space. It's filled with beautiful photographs and time-lapse sequences captured by astronauts on the International Space Station. Astronaut photographer Don Pettit, who maintains a blog about his experiences, writes that taking pictures of Earth is harder than it looks.

This past Sunday, a group of amateur astronomers in San Antonio, Texas successfully “flashed” the International Space Station with …

Over the past year, there have been a number of jaw-dropping (and viral) time-lapse videos created from the amazing …

Between August and October of this year, the crew onboard the International Space Station used a Nikon D3S (at high ISOs) to capture photographs of Earth as they zipped around it at 17,000mph. Michael Konig then took the footage and compiled it into this eye-popping time-lapse video showing what our planet looks like from up there.

This amazing image might look like a computer generated graphic, but it’s actually …

Inspired by the incredible ISS time-lapse that went viral recently, YouTube user …

Ever wonder what the bulky white coverings NASA uses on its DSLRs is for? Popular Photography sent the agency some questions regarding its use of the Nikon D2Xs, and found out some interesting details about astronaut photo gear.

As Space Shuttle Atlantis left the International Space Station to head back to Earth for the final time, one …

Between 1969 and 1972, NASA left 12 Hasselblad cameras on the moon to make room for moon …

Last week we shared about how astronauts left some Nikon DSLR gear to burn up in the …

Here’s a photograph we’ve all taken… only in our bathroom mirror. NASA astronaut Michael Fincke shot …