French astronaut Thomas Pesquet seems all set to return to Earth after his six-month stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Pesquet has been very busy conducting several spacewalks, working on science experiments on the orbital outpost.
Pesquet has also been very frequent with his informative space videos and amazing imagery of our planet from space. With his mission coming to an end, he has shared a time-lapse video that shows incredible images captured during his time in space. The footage shows many space events from auroras to spacewalks and spacecraft.
ESA helped in making the video
As per the ESA, which helped in the production of the video, the time-lapse was captured using a camera setup that takes two images in one second. It was later edited to play at 25images per second. ESA said that most of the sequences in the video are played 12 times faster than actual speed.
Pesquet reached the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft that took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April. He was accompanied by NASA’ Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with Akihiko Hoshide of Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Planning the return of the crew
The space agency is currently evaluating dates for the crew’s return home. NASA’s current priority is to send the Crew-3 mission to the ISS. It was scheduled to take off last weekend but was postponed due to a minor medical issue. The space agency is now targeting November 6 for the launch of the Crew-3 to the space laboratory.
Previously, Pesquet shared a virtual tour of the ISS. The video is shot with a 360-degree camera and takes you on a journey from the station’s Node 3 module, also called Tranquility. A message accompanying the video says “immerse yourself in this brief but unique fly-through [of] humankind’s orbital outpost.” The 360-degree video lets viewers spin around to explore the module interiors.