Orbital Sunrise | International Space Station

Orbital Sunrise | International Space Station

The light from an orbital sunrise refracts through a window inside the International Space Station's "window to the world," the Cupola. At bottom, a portion of the orbital outpost's U.S. segment is illuminated including the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft docked to the Harmony module's forward port. The station was soaring 259 miles above the Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 3:40 a.m. local time when this photograph was taken.

The Cupola is a panoramic control tower for the International Space Station—a dome-shaped module with windows that allows operations on the outside of the station to be observed and guided. It is a pressurized observation and work area that accommodates command and control workstations and other hardware. The Cupola offers a 360 degree view.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos)

JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Zubritskiy, Oleg Platonov

NASA Flight Engineers: Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center 
Image Date: June 13, 2025

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