Orbital Sunsets over Pacific & Indian Oceans | International Space Station

Orbital Sunsets over Pacific & Indian Oceans | International Space Station

The last rays of an orbital sunset illuminate Earth's atmosphere and the cloud tops in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean north of Papua New Guinea.

An orbital sunset softens Earth’s atmosphere and cloud tops with light pink and blue hues in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 262 miles above Western Australia’s Indian Ocean coast.

Crew members aboard the International Space Station see 16 sunrises and sunsets per day due to their high orbital velocity (greater than 28,000 km per hour). The multiple chances for photography are fortunate because at that speed, each sunrise or sunset only lasts a few seconds.

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.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center/J. Meir
Image Date: May 5, 2026

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