Spectacular View of the Alps From Space Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) took this photograph of the Alps from the International Space Station. She wrote I m biased but aren t the Alps from space spectacular What a foggy day on the Po plane though Italy Credit NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
As we say goodbye to 2014 and ring in New Year 2015 the Expedition 42 crew living and working aboard the International Space Station enjoys the new gallery of images they ve sent back of Our Beautiful Earth.
The current six person crew includes astronauts and cosmonauts from three nations America Russia and Italy and the four men and two women are celebrating New Year s 2015 aboard the massive orbiting lab complex.
Happy New Year Celebrating from space with AstroTerry. Credit NASA/Terry Virts
They comprise Expedition 42 Commander Barry Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts from NASA Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency (ESA) and cosmonauts Aleksandr Samokutyayev Yelena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov from Russia.
Beauty everywhere Flying from the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea this appeared through the clouds. HelloEarth. Credit NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
The ISS has been continuously occupied by humans for 15 years. And they are joined by Robonaut 2 who recently got legs.
This area saw some serious action about 350 million years ago Gweni Fada meteorite crater in Chad. Credit NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
Terry Virts and Samantha Cristoforetti have been especially prolific in picture taking and posting to social media for us all to enjoy the view while speeding merrily along at 17 500 mph from an altitude of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.
Here s a special New Year video greeting from Wilmore and Virts
Video Caption Happy New Year from the International Space Station from NASA astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts. Credit NASA
Happy New Year from the International Space Station said Wilmore.
We figure that we will be over midnight somewhere on the Earth on New Year s for 16 times throughout this day. So we plan to celebrate New Year s 16 times with our comrades and our people down on Earth.
No sunsets until Jan 4th we are in a high beta orbit now so this is as dark as it gets. Credit NASA/Terry Virts
We wish everybody a happy healthy and prosperous 2015 as we get the awesome privilege of celebrating New Year s here on the space station with our six station crewmates added Virts
We ll enjoy our 16 New Year s celebrations here.
Part of the Aral sea peaking through the clouds as we flew into Kazakhstan HelloEarth. Credit NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
They plan to celebrate the dawn of 2015 with fruit juice toasts NASA reports.
The year 2015 starts officially for the station crew at midnight by the Universal Time Clock (UTC) also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in London or at 7 p.m. EST Dec. 31.
If I couldn t be in space right now I d want to be here Hawaii. Credit NASA/Terry Virts
New Year s Day 2015 is a day off for the crew.
And I m certain they ll be gazing out the windows capturing more views of Our Beautiful Earth
42 la risposta // 42 is the answer Expedition42 Guide to the galaxy. Credit NASA_Astronauts AstroButch
And don t forget to catch up on the Christmas holiday imagery and festivities from the station crews in my recent stories here and here.
NewYork NewYork Can almost see the Statue of Liberty. Which is by the way UNESCO WorldHeritage Credit NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti
Meanwhile the crew continues science operations and preparations for next week s arrival of the next unmanned space station resupply ship on the SpaceX CRS 5 mission.
CRS 5 is slated to blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 6 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to soar to the ISS after completing a successful static fire test on Dec. 19 ahead of the planned CRS 5 mission for NASA in early January 2015. Credit Ken Kremer kenkremer.com
Stay tuned here for Ken s continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
ISS astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore NASA Samantha Cristoforetti ESA and Terry Virts NASA send Christmas 2014 greetings from the space station to the people of Earth. Credit NASA/ESA
ISS Expedition 42. Credit NASA/ESA/Roscosmos
About Ken KremerDr. Ken Kremer is a speaker scientist freelance science journalist (Princeton NJ) and photographer whose articles space exploration images and Mars mosaics have appeared in magazines books websites and calanders including Astronomy Picture of the Day NBC BBC SPACE.com Spaceflight Now and the covers of Aviation Week Space Technology Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines. Ken has presented at numerous educational institutions civic religious organizations museums and astronomy clubs. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center Cape Canaveral and NASA Wallops on over 40 launches including 8 shuttle launches. He lectures on both Human and Robotic spaceflight www.kenkremer.com. Follow Ken on Facebook and Twitter
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