Explanation:
Looking out a window of the
International Space Station
brings breathtaking views.
Visible vistas include a vast and colorful Earth, a deep dark sky,
and an occasional spaceship sent to visit the station.
Visible on September 20 of last year was a
Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft
carrying not only supplies but also three new astronauts.
A few days before
this picture was taken, the U.S.
Space Shuttle Atlantis
had just departed.
The three new approaching astronauts were American Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Russian Mikhail Tyurin, and Iranian-American
Anousheh Ansari.
Ms. Ansari visited the International Space Station (ISS)
briefly as a paying spaceflight participant for the
Federal Space Agency
of Russia, and wrote a
popular blog about her experiences.
Lopez-Alegria would lead the ISS crew dubbed
Expedition 14, which included the flight engineer and Soyuz pilot Tyurin,
flight engineer American Sunita Williams, and flight engineer German
Thomas Reiter.
Tyurin returned to the Earth with Lopez-Alegria this past week.
