Himalayan Heights
On March 1, 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after spending 340 days living continuously in space. That’s a record. No other American astronaut has completed a longer mission or spent more cumulative days in space.
A prolific and talented photographer, Kelly posted hundreds and hundreds of photographs of the Earth below to social media during his flight. In a fitting finale for the record-breaking explorer, one of the last photos he posted from orbit was this hazy blue scene of the Himalayas.
“The Himalayas remind me of the bigger view we see when we conquer the mountains we climb,” he said on Twitter. The tip of mountain Mount Everest is about 8.8 kilometers (5.5 miles) above sea level; Kelly was in orbit about 250 kilometers above sea level. Over the course of the mission, he traveled some 231,498,541 kilometers.
Congratulations, Scott, on your safe return. Thank you for the beautiful photos. And keep climbing. (The image below, an astronaut photograph taken in 2013, shows K2, one the most treacherous mountains in the world for climbers. Read more about the 8K peaks here.)
