Photos of cosmonauts show the International Space Station from a rare perspective

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Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky shared this photo of the International Space Station on Twitter on September 29, 2021. He and two colleagues were then moving a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from one port to another. (Image credit: Oleg Novitsky / Roscosmos via Twitter)

If you’ve started to take the International Space Station for granted, these new photos could serve as a tonic.

The two images, shared on Twitter on September 29 by cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, show the orbiting laboratory in all its complex and multimodular splendor.

The photos were taken on September 28 by a Russian Soyuz capsule, which Novitsky, fellow cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrovnik and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei were moving from the Rassvet module facing Earth from the station to the active docking port of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

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Another photo of the International Space Station shared by Novitsky on Twitter on September 29, 2021. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule "Effort" is clearly visible, sticky "up" of the Harmony module of the orbiting laboratory. — Another photo of the International Space Station shared by Oleg Novitsky on Twitter on September 29, 2021. The SpaceX Crew Dragon “Endeavor” capsule is clearly visible, protruding from the Harmony module of the orbiting laboratory. (Image credit: Oleg Novitsky / Roscosmos via Twitter)

The trio decided to make room for another Soyuz capsule, which should launch to the laboratory in orbit Tuesday (October 5) with director Klim Shipenko, actor Yulia Peresild and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov on board. Shipenko and Peresild will shoot part of a Russian film called “Challenge” on the station, then return to Earth on October 16 (October 17 in Kazakhstan). (Shkaplerov will remain in the orbiting lab for the usual six-month stay.)

The resort has seen other comings and goings recently, as the two new photos show. For example, the long-awaited and often delayed Nauka module – visible at the “bottom” of the station, pointing towards the viewer in each frame – arrived at the orbiting laboratory in late July, causing some unwanted drama in the process.

And SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule “Endeavor,” which brought four astronauts to the station in April on the company’s site. Mission crew-2 for NASA, is clearly visible in both images, protruding from the top port of the Harmony module. And in one of the images, part of a SpaceX robotic cargo dragon can be seen behind Endeavor, docked in another Harmony port.

This Dragon freighter is no longer part of the International space station complex; he came back to Earth on Friday (October 1), packed with about 4,600 pounds. (2,100 kilograms) of science experiments and other gear. Endeavor will also be returning relatively soon; NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency are scheduled to return home next month.

This quartet is part of an impressive carousel of alien life. The space station has hosted rotating crews of astronauts continuously since November 2000.

Mike Wall is the author of “The low“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about finding alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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