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How Nasa is photographing the world in 90 minutes

The crew on the International Space Station is on a photography mission.
The crew on the International Space Station is on a photography mission. The crew on the International Space Station is on a photography mission.

The crew on board the International Space Station is on a mission to photograph the world in 90 minutes.

The #1World1Orbit adventure is inspired by an 80s photography project called A Day In The Life Of America – which saw 200 photojournalists set out across the US to capture the life of a nation in a single day. This later turned into a book series.

For this space version, Randy Bresnik, the commander of Expedition 53, is spending one full orbit – a 90-minute journey – photographing the planet from the ISS which orbits at five miles per second.

The route started above the UK, then crossed Europe and Oman and will touch the Maldives. It will see a sunset west of Australia and a sunrise over the Pacific Ocean before passing above Mexico, the US and parts of Canada.

“You can’t look at the Earth and not be changed,” Bresnik said. “You realize every experience you’ve ever had and every person you’ve ever known is down on that little blue marble.”

He is taking pictures from the ISS’s cupola – a 360-degree window which faces towards the Earth about 250 miles above the planet.

But just as important is for the people on Earth to share their pictures of where they are.

Together Nasa and the astronauts want to capture “a moment in time”.

Nasa will share pictures from the series in the coming days and weeks.

THe US leg of the orbit sees the ISS fly above Houston, Memphis, Nashville, Cincinnati and Niagra Falls before it goes above Montreal and Ottawa in Canada.