Breathtaking photos of Earth have been taken from even higher than the ISS

NASA astronauts regularly share beautiful images of Earth captured from space. However, a recent batch of photos captured from an orbit even higher than the International Space Station (ISS) provides an even more astonishing view of planet Earth.

As spotted by Digital trends, the images shared of the world’s first fully civilian space mission aboard SpaceX’s Inspiration4 earlier this month are nothing short of spectacular.

“When you look at the sky, you dream of being among the stars. When you are with the stars and you look down, you dream of being back on earth,” said Chris Sembroski, team member .

The team aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft have already shared a plethora of images from their time in orbit, however, this new batch of images is the first to be released which has been taken with a professional camera system, allowing a whole new level of detail and clarity to see. Images were captured through the spacecraft’s new all-glass dome as the Inspiration4 circled the Earth at a height of 357 miles (575 kilometers), placing it approximately 100 miles away from our planet. than the ISS.

The glass dome provided the crew with a panoramic view of the planet, capturing some pretty incredible footage during orbit time. SpaceX even posted a photo of Sembroski taking some of the images through the dome.

According to Jared Isaacman, the mission commander, the team has around 700 images captured with the crew’s Nikon digital SLR system that will be shared over the next few weeks on the Inspiration4 Twitter account and Flickr.

For those who want to learn more about what it’s like to take photos from space, be sure to read a previous story with Chris Hadfield that provides an overview of the task.

Image credits: Photos from the Inspiration4 team via Creative Commons.