“I didn’t think the views could get any better!” Astronaut shares mesmerizing timelapse video of the galaxy from Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft
- Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi captured the time-lapse video from space
- He was in the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience capsule when he recorded the video
- The video was shared by NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins who was with Noguchi
An enchanting time-lapse video shot from the window of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft had NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins ‘overwhelmed’ with its beauty.
The clip shows a field of black and blue stars moving across the frame and was taken by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
“I didn’t think the views could get any better than my crew member [Soichi Noguchi] took this night’s timelapse from Resilience and I was blown away, ‘Hopkins said.
Noguchi and Hopkins are among the ten astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station, orbiting Earth.
The pair shared a ride to the Earth orbit lab with two other NASA astronauts as part of SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission in November 2020.
The clip shows a field of black and blue stars moving across the frame and was taken by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
The four astronauts, including Noguchi and Hopkins, had to move their SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience capsule to make room for incoming SpaceX missions.
The Crew-1 astronauts were the first to be brought to the ISS by a commercial operator and the first from US soil since the Space Shuttle’s last flight in 2011.
Noguchi, who shot the sensational video of the stars outside the Crew Dragon spacecraft, has traveled to the ISS three times.
His first was on the Space Shuttle, which was retired in 2011, then he flew to the station on a Soyuz spacecraft from Roscosmos, eventually becoming the first Japanese astronaut to fly a commercial spacecraft on his final voyage.
With another SpaceX crew Dragon scheduled to arrive at the ISS on April 22 and cargo flights in the coming weeks, the team had to clear a dock port.
Resilience was docked with the Harmony module, but had to be ‘re-parked’ on April 5 – the first time a commercial spaceship was docked to the ISS.
Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker from NASA, with Noguchi wearing their flight suits to move the capsule in a process that took about 45 minutes.
The reason they had to be in the Crew Dragon vehicle was to make sure that if it failed to re-dock there wouldn’t be more people on the ISS than seats on ships to escape if there was a problem in the orbital laboratory.
Noguchi and Hopkins are among the ten astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station, orbiting Earth.
The second SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship takes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough as the space commander and Megan McArthur as the pilot.
They will be joined on April 22 by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide.
A week later, on April 28, the Crew-1 mission comes to an end as Hopkins, Walker, Victor Glover and Soichi Noguchi land near Florida.
The pair shared a ride to the Earth orbit lab with two other NASA astronauts as part of SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission in November 2020.
The returning Crew Dragon Resilience is being refurbished for the ‘Inspiration4 Mission’ which will bring four private citizens to the ISS no earlier than mid-September.
The most recent launch for the ISS saw a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts shoot at a Soyuz rocket and dock at the station.
NASA’s Mark Vande Hei, Soyuz commander Oleg Novitskly and Roscosmos flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov made the trip on Monday.