Cosmonaut Video: The Southern Lights & Soyuz MS-28 | International Space Station

Cosmonaut Video: The Southern Lights & Soyuz MS-28 | International Space Station

Expedition 74 station commander and cosmonaut Sergey-Kud Sverchkov: "Our Soyuz MS-28 and the Southern Lights. The current ISS-74 expedition experienced a period of unusually active solar activity, giving us the opportunity to regularly observe the aurora borealis. As is well known, there are not only northern lights (Aurora borealis) but also southern lights (Aurora australis). People have been familiar with the northern lights since ancient times—the first mentions of the colored sky were found in Chinese chronicles of the 10th century BC. The southern lights, however, were only [officially] discovered in the 18th century during the exploration of the southern polar latitudes by Cook's expedition."

"Quick asides:

The name Aurora borealis, which we still use today, was coined by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1619.

In 1716, the Englishman Edmund Halley (not to be confused with Galileo!) suggested that the auroras were related to the Earth's magnetic field.

In 1753, the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov scientifically substantiated the electrical nature of lightning and suggested that the auroras had a similar origin.

In 1908, the Norwegian Christian Birkeland explained the aurora borealis by linking the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field, demonstrating that this phenomenon had a cosmic origin."

Soyuz MS-28 is a Russian crewed Soyuz spaceflight launched from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 27, 2025 to the International Space Station, where it docked to Russia's Rassvet docking port.

Follow Expedition 74:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Sergey-Kud Sverchkov (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Sergei Mikaev

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams

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.

Video Credit: Roscosmos
Duration: 15 seconds
Release Date: April 23, 2026

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