It may not be a perfect world, but if you look in the right places it’s certainly wonderful.
International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, for one, definitely thinks so. Inspired by Louis Armstrong’s 1967 classic What a Wonderful World, the Italian space traveler recently posted four sublime Earth images alongside lyrics from the legendary track.
“I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world…”#MissionMinerva pic.twitter.com/3cGi1I5Uck— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) September 10, 2022
The pictures, captured from the space station as it orbited some 250 miles above our planet, look more like paintings that photographs. Cristoforetti doesn’t say what parts of the world they show, inviting us instead to focus on the sheer beauty of the scenery far below.
During downtime on the ISS, astronauts often like to head to the Cupola module, whose seven windows offer stunning views of Earth and beyond. No doubt these images were taken from that precise place.
While some crew members like to simply gaze out and enjoy the vistas, others grab one of the station’s many cameras, capturing the spectacle to share with their followers on social media.
Cristoforetti, who has more than a million followers on Twitter and around half a million on TikTok, has been posting regular updates during her six-month space mission, which started in April.
Her various posts aim to share different aspects of her life in space and have so far included tips for wannabe astronauts, an explanation of a mysterious bright light on Earth, an image of a lunar eclipse from space, and a time-lapse showing how the sun sometimes doesn’t set for astronauts aboard the station.
She’s also demonstrated how astronauts perform CPR in space, and chatted about how space debris can affect life on the orbiting outpost.
For a bit of fun, she also recreated a moment from the hit Hollywood flick, Gravity.
For more images showing Earth from space, check out this impressive collection captured from the ISS and other spacecraft, including one particular stunner snapped during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
