Revision History

- NASA has published a breathtaking new timelapse video captured from the International Space Station's Cupola observation module, offering an unprecedented continuous view of Earth's atmosphere and surface features over a full orbital pass.
+ As the year draws to a close, NASA released its final weekly recap highlighting major milestones across the agency's lunar exploration program, crewed spaceflight operations, and Earth science missions.
- The footage, captured over a 90-minute orbit on January 15, 2026, showcases the planet's diverse landscapes — from the Sahara Desert's sand seas to the electric blue of Caribbean shallow waters, thunderstorm cells flickering across the Amazon basin, and the aurora australis shimmering over the Southern Ocean.
+ The update, published December 23 in NASA's regular Minute video series, underscores the breadth of activity heading into 2026 — from hardware progress on the Artemis program to new crew assignments for the International Space Station.
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+ ## Artemis and Lunar Missions
- "What makes this particular sequence remarkable is the clarity," said Dr. Megan Chen, an Earth observation scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "The new high-dynamic-range camera system installed during the SpaceX CRS-31 resupply mission captures detail we've never been able to resolve from orbit before. You can see individual cloud formations evolving in real time."
+ NASA reported continued progress on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, the cornerstone hardware for the agency's return-to-the-Moon campaign. The Artemis program remains on track for its next crewed mission, with integration and testing milestones met throughout the fourth quarter of 2025.
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+ The agency has emphasized that lessons learned from the Artemis I uncrewed test flight continue to inform design refinements, particularly in the Orion heat shield and life support systems that will protect astronauts during lunar transit.
- The camera system, developed in partnership with the European Space Agency, uses a custom sensor capable of simultaneously capturing the bright sunlit surface and the dim glow of city lights on the night side — a technical challenge that previously required separate exposures.
+ ## SpaceX Crew-12 and New Astronaut Assignments
- ## Scientific Value Beyond Aesthetics
+ The recap also spotlighted NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission, with astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway among those preparing for upcoming orbital rotations. Meir, a veteran of a previous ISS expedition, will serve as mission specialist, while Hathaway — selected in NASA's 2021 astronaut class — will make his first spaceflight.
- While the visual impact is immediate, the footage also serves a scientific purpose. Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are using the continuous orbital recordings to study mesoscale convective systems — clusters of thunderstorms that can span hundreds of kilometers and significantly influence regional weather patterns.
+ International partners ESA and Roscosmos continue to contribute crew members and research payloads, reinforcing the station's role as a multinational laboratory.
- "Traditional weather satellites give us snapshots," explained Dr. Adrian Torres, an atmospheric scientist at Goddard. "This continuous, high-resolution footage lets us watch how these storm systems organize and dissipate in ways that our numerical models still struggle to predict accurately."
+ ## Earth Science: Sentinel-6B and Carruthers Observatory
- The team has already identified several instances where the timelapse reveals atmospheric wave patterns propagating across the upper troposphere — phenomena that are difficult to capture with conventional polar-orbiting instruments.
+ On the Earth observation front, NASA highlighted the Sentinel-6B mission, a joint effort with ESA to monitor global sea level changes with unprecedented precision. The satellite extends a multi-decade record of ocean surface topography data critical for understanding climate change.
- ## Public Engagement
+ Meanwhile, NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory — a new ultraviolet instrument in low Earth orbit — has begun returning data on Earth's extended hydrogen atmosphere, known as the geocorona. The observatory, named after pioneering physicist George Carruthers, is mapping the planet's ultraviolet halo to better understand how the upper atmosphere interacts with solar radiation.
- NASA has made the full uncompressed footage available through its Scientific Visualization Studio, along with annotated versions that identify geographic features and atmospheric phenomena visible in the sequence. An interactive web tool allows users to scrub through the orbit and overlay information about the regions passing below.
+ ## Looking Ahead to 2026
- The agency notes that this is the first in a planned monthly series of full-orbit recordings, part of a broader initiative to make ISS Earth observation data more accessible to researchers, educators, and the public.
+ "As we say goodbye to 2025, we're already looking ahead here at NASA, with progress on lunar missions, new crews preparing for orbit, and fresh views of Earth from space," the agency noted in its recap.
- "Every time we share these views, we hear from teachers who use them in their classrooms and researchers who spot something they want to investigate further," said Dr. Chen. "That feedback loop between public engagement and science is exactly what the ISS program was designed to foster."
+ The coming year is expected to bring critical milestones including additional Artemis hardware testing, the launch of Crew-12, and first science results from the Carruthers Observatory. NASA's Earth science division also plans expanded collaboration with international partners on climate monitoring missions.
- The next scheduled recording will focus on capturing a full orbital pass during a major geomagnetic storm, expected in late February, which could produce visible aurora at unusually low latitudes.
+ The full NASA Minute video recap is available on NASA's media library and official channels.