NASA astronaut Suni Williams can be spotted in this telescope-shot image of the International Space Station — if you know where to look. (Image credit: Charlene Giroux)
A photography enthusiast on Earth has captured an extremely rare image of a 'stranded' NASA astronaut Suni Williams floating outside the International Space Station (ISS) as it passed overhead. The photo was taken during a recent spacewalk, in which Williams set a record for the longest uninterrupted spacewalk by a female astronaut.
Charlene Giroux, a biochemist at the University of Oxford in England and an avid astrophotographer, took this stunning photo on January 30 using a small telescope as the ISS flew over Oxfordshire at an altitude of about 250 miles (410 kilometers). The shot required remarkable precision, as the space station was moving at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h).
“I was incredibly fortunate to capture this event under clear skies with a telescope from my hometown. It was an amazing moment,” Giroud told Spaceweather.com.
At the time, ISS commander Sunita “Suni” Williams was performing her fifth spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), to help remove an unneeded element of the station. The walk gave Williams a total of 62 hours and six minutes in the vacuum of space, surpassing retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson to become the female astronaut with the most time spent in space without a break, according to Live Science sister site Space.com. (Whitson still holds the record for most individual spacewalks by a female astronaut, with six.)
In the image, Williams is shown as a small white ball attached to the end of a robotic arm known as Canadarm-2, which appears as a gold line running near the center of the station (see below).
The photos show Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) where they were when the new photo was taken.
In addition to setting an impressive spacewalk record, Williams “is also the first female astronaut to be photographed from Earth during a spacewalk,” Giroux noted. “Congratulations, Suni!”
NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, who spent seven months on the ISS with Williams, was also in the open
Sourse: www.livescience.com
