EBOOK
About
From the record-breaking astronaut, national hero, and best-selling author of Endurance, a breathtaking collection of photos documenting his journey on the International Space Station, the vastness of space, and the unparalleled beauty of our own home planet.
One's perspective shifts when one lives for an entire year--as Commander Scott Kelly, and no other American astronaut in history, has--in the isolating, grueling, and utterly unforgiving vacuum of space. Kelly's photos prove that this perspective--from 250 miles above Earth-- while hard-won, is also almost unspeakably beautiful. A gift for photography helped make Kelly a social media sensation, and here his photos are collected alongside his own commentary, which set the images in their proper contexts, human and cosmic.
Kelly captures sunsets, moonrises, the aurora borealis, and the luminous, hazy tapestry of the Milky Way. He presents snapshots of life and work on the International Space Station, from spacewalks to selfies. But above all--or floating amidst all--he takes the earth itself as his celestial muse. Here are hurricanes, wrinkled mountains, New York City shining like a galaxy--glorious photographs that are, in themselves, a passionate argument for the preservation of our planet in the face of climate change and environmental destruction. SCOTT KELLY is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. During the Year in Space mission, he set records for the total accumulated number of days spent in space and for the single longest space mission by an American astronaut.
PREFACE
My first flight into space was aboard the space shuttle Discovery in December 1999 on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. There are many things about a first space flight that are surprising: the adrenaline rush of the launch countdown, the roar of the main engines, and the sheer power of the solid rocket motors as they explode with millions of pounds of instantaneous thrust. These all pale, however, in comparison to the beautiful views of the Earth. After our eight-and-a-half-minute ride into orbit I glanced outside and saw something on the horizon that seemed completely surreal. I turned to the commander of the mission, Curt Brown, and asked excitedly, "What the hell is that?" Curt, on his sixth flight into space, replied nonchalantly, "Oh, that's the sunrise." I was awestruck. Later, I would admire the luminescent waters of the ocean, as if someone had taken the most brilliant blue paint and brushed it across a mirror right in front of my eyes. The bright reds, oranges, and yellows of the deserts were often juxtaposed against the blues of the adjacent waters. The majestic mountain ranges on the horizon seemingly reached out to touch space. It was clear I would never see something more beautiful than the Earth.
My first flight into space was only eight days. I would have to wait nearly eight years to experience the Earth from space again. But it wasn't until my third flight into space in 2010, a long-duration flight to the International Space Station (ISS), launching aboard a Russian Soyuz, that I had the time to fully appreciate my vantage point high above the planet. On this mission I honed some of the skills that would allow me to capture images of the Earth that I would enhance to emphasize their beauty.
In the microgravity environment of space, taking photos is challenging, and I had to find unique ways to support the camera and myself. Since the Earth was moving past at a blistering 17,500 miles per hour, I had to pan the camera steadily and quickly as the shutter released, otherwise the image would smear and appear out of focus. We were flying at five miles per second, so opportunities to
One's perspective shifts when one lives for an entire year--as Commander Scott Kelly, and no other American astronaut in history, has--in the isolating, grueling, and utterly unforgiving vacuum of space. Kelly's photos prove that this perspective--from 250 miles above Earth-- while hard-won, is also almost unspeakably beautiful. A gift for photography helped make Kelly a social media sensation, and here his photos are collected alongside his own commentary, which set the images in their proper contexts, human and cosmic.
Kelly captures sunsets, moonrises, the aurora borealis, and the luminous, hazy tapestry of the Milky Way. He presents snapshots of life and work on the International Space Station, from spacewalks to selfies. But above all--or floating amidst all--he takes the earth itself as his celestial muse. Here are hurricanes, wrinkled mountains, New York City shining like a galaxy--glorious photographs that are, in themselves, a passionate argument for the preservation of our planet in the face of climate change and environmental destruction. SCOTT KELLY is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. During the Year in Space mission, he set records for the total accumulated number of days spent in space and for the single longest space mission by an American astronaut.
PREFACE
My first flight into space was aboard the space shuttle Discovery in December 1999 on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. There are many things about a first space flight that are surprising: the adrenaline rush of the launch countdown, the roar of the main engines, and the sheer power of the solid rocket motors as they explode with millions of pounds of instantaneous thrust. These all pale, however, in comparison to the beautiful views of the Earth. After our eight-and-a-half-minute ride into orbit I glanced outside and saw something on the horizon that seemed completely surreal. I turned to the commander of the mission, Curt Brown, and asked excitedly, "What the hell is that?" Curt, on his sixth flight into space, replied nonchalantly, "Oh, that's the sunrise." I was awestruck. Later, I would admire the luminescent waters of the ocean, as if someone had taken the most brilliant blue paint and brushed it across a mirror right in front of my eyes. The bright reds, oranges, and yellows of the deserts were often juxtaposed against the blues of the adjacent waters. The majestic mountain ranges on the horizon seemingly reached out to touch space. It was clear I would never see something more beautiful than the Earth.
My first flight into space was only eight days. I would have to wait nearly eight years to experience the Earth from space again. But it wasn't until my third flight into space in 2010, a long-duration flight to the International Space Station (ISS), launching aboard a Russian Soyuz, that I had the time to fully appreciate my vantage point high above the planet. On this mission I honed some of the skills that would allow me to capture images of the Earth that I would enhance to emphasize their beauty.
In the microgravity environment of space, taking photos is challenging, and I had to find unique ways to support the camera and myself. Since the Earth was moving past at a blistering 17,500 miles per hour, I had to pan the camera steadily and quickly as the shutter released, otherwise the image would smear and appear out of focus. We were flying at five miles per second, so opportunities to