An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has shared a rarely seen view from the orbiting outpost that shows our planet from horizon to horizon.
The video, captured by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, was made possible by recording Earth through a fish-eye lens. Covering a distance of about 4,300 miles, the video (below) starts just south of Ireland before passing over France, the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Sicily, the Nile, and the Red Sea before reaching the Horn of Africa.
“Fly with me! From Ireland to the Horn of Africa through a fisheye lens,” Cristoforetti wrote in a tweet accompanying the video. “It distorts the geometry a bit, but it allows me to show you the almost entire view we have from Space Station, from horizon to horizon!”
Fly with me! From Ireland to the Horn of Africa through a fisheye lens – it distorts the geometry a bit, but it allows me to show you the almost entire view we have from Space Station, from horizon to horizon!#MissionMinerva@Space_Station@esapic.twitter.com/ORKUNYouKQ
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha)July 30, 2025
Cristoforetti has been keeping her one million Twitter followers up to date with her space station activities since reaching orbit five months ago. Besides offeringadvice to wannabe astronauts, past posts have also included agorgeous view of a moonlit Earth, alunar eclipse from space, a time lapse showing howthe sun sometimes doesn’t setfor astronauts on the station, and, just last week, an investigation intoa strange bright lightthat she spotted on Earth.
Cristoforetti eventook time out to recreate a momentfrom the hit 2013 space movieGravity.
The International Space Station has been in operation for two decades and orbits Earth at an altitude of about 250 miles. For more on how visiting astronauts live and work aboard the space-based laboratory,check out these videosmade by various crews over the years.
