Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain to look for a new westward
route to Asia. He (and many other sailors) didn't survive the journey. But three
years later, what remained of his crew made it home, having completed the
first circumnavigation of the globe. Logbooks from the voyage were a revela-
tion, the most complete record yet of our planet's infinite variety.
Nearly 500 years later, the International Space Station completes an orbit of
our planet every 92 minutes—16 circumnavigations a day. The ISS is a busy
scientific laboratory and NASA budgets zero time for photographing Earth, but
there are dozens of cameras on board and astronauts use them daily. The im-
pulse is one Magellan and his crew would recognize: to record—and
share—the wonders of the Earth.
Those wonders are endless. My final space mission lasted five months,
from December 2012 to May 2013, yet I never tired of looking out the window.
I don't think any astronaut ever has, or will. Every chance we have, we float
over to see what's changed since we last went around the Earth. There's al-
ways something new to see because the planet itself is rotating, so each orbit
takes us over different parts of it. Every crossing of the Pacific, every landfall,
brings different weather and vegetation and lighting. And as the seasons
change, sunlight, snow and new plant life create new patterns the world over.
During 2,597 orbits of our planet, I took about 45,000 photographs. At first,
my approach was scattershot: just take as many pictures as possible. As time
went on, though, I began to think of myself as a hunter, silently stalking cer-
tain shots. Some eluded me: Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and Uluru, or Ayers
Rock, in Australia. I captured others only after methodical planning: “Today,
the skies are supposed to be clear in Jeddah and we'll be passing nearby in
the late afternoon, so the angle of the sun will be good. I need to get the long
lens and be waiting at the window, looking in the right direction, at 4:02 be-
cause I'll have less than a minute to get the shot.” Traveling at 17,500 miles
per hour, the margin for error is very slim. Miss your opportunity and it may
not arise again for another six weeks, depending on the ISS's orbital path and
conditions on the ground.
