During their orbital journey, NASA’s Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were greeted with breathtaking vistas of Earth. They etched their names in the annals of space exploration on May 30, as they soared from US territory aboard a commercial spacecraft built and operated by a private company, embarking for the International Space Station. Their pioneering mission serves as a crucial step in the process for NASA to validate the capabilities of SpaceX’s crew transportation system.
The curvature of Earth against the blackness of space presents itself in a mesmerizing display, where the thin blue line of the atmosphere caresses our planet. The sunlight scatters in the air, creating a gradient from the deep blue of the upper atmosphere to the lighter shades of blue, speckled with swirling white clouds, leading to the darkness of space above.