Brilliant blue-green lights stand out among the city lights below as the International Space Station travels inland from the Indian Ocean toward Asia. With docked spacecraft in the foreground and stars beyond Earth’s horizon, this nighttime view captures the experience of looking back from an orbiting outpost.
The blue-green clusters are likely fishing boats using powerful lamps to attract marine life. NASA has documented similar fishing lights in the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand, although the exact location of the clusters in this sequence has not been confirmed.
Created from 3,200 sequential photographs captured on March 1, 2026, this 8K timelapse follows a photographed ground track over Myanmar, China, and Russia.
The camera looks backward along the station’s flight path. The globe marker shows the station’s position; the landscapes and waters visible behind it extend well beyond the point directly beneath the ISS.
Life aboard the ISS — Expedition 74
The seven crew members aboard were commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov; NASA astronauts Chris Williams, Jessica Meir, and Jack Hathaway; ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Andrey Fedyaev.
Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev arrived on November 27, 2025. Meir, Hathaway, Adenot, and Fedyaev arrived on February 14, 2026. Around the time these photographs were taken, the crew was conducting biomedical research, testing robotics and exercise equipment, and preparing cargo spacecraft for departure. A Dragon spacecraft had recently returned scientific samples and equipment to Earth for analysis.
Photo date: March 1, 2026
