Astrophotographer captures stunning photo of ISS as it crosses the moon

A stunning image of the International Space Station against the backdrop of the moon was captured as its astronauts prepared for a spacewalk.

The orbiting science lab had been reoriented to allow astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover to step out and prepare solar panels for future upgrades.

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured the image of the station, which orbit 400 km above Earth, on the side of a road in Sacramento, California.

This rare photo of the reoriented view of the station, captured at around 10:44 a.m. GMT on Monday, “instantly became one of my favorite captures,” McCarthy explained.

What made this image remarkable was the orientation of the ISS as it was taken and the ‘second-to-the-second’ accuracy of McCarthy capturing the orbiting lab as it grazed the Copernicus crater. on the moon – before it is gone.

This lunar impact crater is visible with binoculars slightly northwest of the center of the Earth-facing hemisphere.

The solar panels that typically sit flat on either side of the station were seen moving at different angles due to the spacewalk, adding to the uniqueness of the photograph.

McCarthy said the image has become an instant favorite among the many photographs he captures of the night sky on a daily basis.

“ This is due to the novelty of capturing a spacecraft from Earth, but especially since I could clearly see the reconfiguration of the solar panel due to a mission that was being broadcast live from NASA, ” he said. he explained.

“This is one of the few times when you can easily observe the structural changes due to a mission from Earth.

“In this image you can see how the solar panel has been reoriented so that the ISS crew can install new hardware.

British astronaut Tim Peake responded to the post in the image on Twitter, saying: ‘Congratulations on taking such a fantastic photo of my old home! ”

The photo was taken on a road in Sacramento, Calif., Chosen because it was a clear sky where McCarthy could capture the ISS by following a path through the moon.

“ But I didn’t expect to get this cool, rare shot of a mission taking place over our heads.

And to top it off, in the photo, the ISS grazes my favorite lunar crater, Copernicus. What a world.

He added: “ At 2:44 a.m. this morning, I positioned myself so that the ISS would pass between the moon and me to get this image. What I didn’t expect was that the ISS would be so different than it used to be.

For the spacewalk, which led to the new look of the ISS, Glover and Rubins continued to work on upgrades to the power systems, which slowly degrade over time.

Their work lasted seven hours and four minutes on Sunday, February 28, between 11:12 a.m. and 6:16 p.m. GMT – all broadcast live by NASA.

The ISS has eight wings of solar panels, each designed to produce a total of 250 kW of power and the oldest was launched in 2000, the most recent in 2009 – all by now defunct space shuttles.

They work well but degrade because they were designed to have a 15 year lifespan – and the oldest are now 21 years old. New solar panels will be placed in front of the old ones later this year and will be launched on a SpaceX vehicle in June.

The upcoming spacewalk will see Rubins teaming up with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to complete more solar panel upgrades.