From a window aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Anil Menon paused between the labor of his first spacewalk and the ongoing work of keeping a decades-old orbital laboratory alive, to witness the aurora borealis unfolding beneath him — a reminder that even in the most engineered of environments, the natural world finds ways to astonish. His footage, shared quietly online with technical precision and a poet's caption, places a single human moment inside the longer story of humanity's effort to sustain a permanent presence beyond Earth.
NASA Astronaut Menon Captures Stunning Aurora View From SpaceX Dragon in Orbit
A room with a view from 250 miles above Earth
Mark
So Menon took a photograph of the aurora from space. Why does that matter?
Mimi
It matters because it's a direct record of what the view actually looks like from orbit—not an artist's rendering or a simulation, but what an astronaut sees through a window. And it came right after he completed his first spacewalk, which was work that will extend the station's operational life.
Mark
What was the spacewalk actually doing?
Mimi
Preparing the power channel for new solar arrays. The ISS needs more electricity to keep running as it ages. Menon and Meir spent over six hours outside the station doing that preparation work.
Luke
But we should be clear: the aurora photo is beautiful and human, but it's not the news. The news is the spacewalk work and what it enables. The photo is what Menon chose to share afterward—a moment of wonder between tasks.
Mark
Is this Menon's first time in space?
Mimi
First time in space, first spacewalk. Meir was on her sixth. So this was a significant milestone for him.
Luke
And we know the spacewalk objectives were completed successfully, but the source doesn't detail what specifically they did or what challenges they faced. We have the duration and the outcome, not the granular work.
Mark
What do the new solar arrays actually do?
Mimi
They generate more electricity for the station. The ISS has been in orbit for decades now, and keeping it powered and operational requires constant upgrades. These arrays are part of that long-term maintenance.
Luke
Right—and the source frames this as important for "scientific research and other activities," which is accurate but broad. We don't know which specific experiments or systems depend most on this power increase.
Mark
So the aurora photo is the human moment in a story about infrastructure maintenance.
Mimi
Exactly. It's Menon saying: this is what I saw between the work. This is what it's like to be here.
El Pulso
- Days after his first-ever spacewalk — six and a half hours in the vacuum of space alongside veteran astronaut Jessica Meir — Menon found stillness at a Dragon capsule window and filmed the aurora rolling beneath him in waves of green.
- The footage is not polished or pristine: structural frames crowd the edges, the station is in motion, and the settings — 15mm lens, 1/4 second, ISO 8000 — are logged like a field report, grounding the sublime in the mechanical.
- The spacewalk itself carried real stakes: Menon and Meir were preparing the ISS's 3B power channel for new roll-out solar arrays, work that will determine how much electricity the aging station can generate in the years ahead.
- The IROSA upgrades represent the ISS's bid for longevity — more power means more science, more systems sustained, more time for the research that justifies keeping humans in orbit at all.
- Menon's aurora moment lands as a quiet counterpoint to all of that urgency: a brief, luminous interval between labor and labor, visible only to those already far enough from Earth to see it.
From a window aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Anil Menon paused between the labor of his first spacewalk and the ongoing work of keeping a decades-old orbital laboratory alive, to witness the aurora borealis unfolding beneath him — a reminder that even in the most engineered of environments, the natural world finds ways to astonish. His footage, shared quietly online with technical precision and a poet's caption, places a single human moment inside the longer story of humanity's effort to sustain a permanent presence beyond Earth.
Anil Menon was floating past a SpaceX Dragon window docked to the International Space Station when the aurora borealis appeared below him — green light moving through darkness, Earth curving beyond. He filmed it, posted it, and called it "a room with a view."
The footage is precise in its imperfection: window frames visible at the edges, the station in forward motion, the settings logged carefully — 15mm lens, a quarter-second exposure, ISO 8000. It is a view from inside a working spacecraft, not a pristine observatory, and that detail matters.
The video arrived two days after Menon completed his first spacewalk. On August 6, he and fellow astronaut Jessica Meir spent six hours and twenty-seven minutes outside the station on US Spacewalk 96, preparing the ISS's 3B power channel for the future installation of new Roll-Out Solar Arrays. For Menon, it was a first; for Meir, her sixth. The work was foundational — the IROSA arrays will expand the station's electricity generation capacity, sustaining the systems and scientific research that define the ISS's third decade in orbit.
The aurora footage sits between those two realities: the physical labor of keeping a space station alive, and the fleeting, unrepeatable experience of living far enough above Earth to witness phenomena that exist only at the edge of the atmosphere. Menon captured both in the same week — one with a wrench, one with a camera.
Anil Menon floated past the window of a SpaceX Dragon capsule docked to the International Space Station and saw something most people will never witness: the aurora borealis rolling across the night sky below him, waves of green light rippling through the darkness of space. He recorded it, posted the footage online, and called it simply "a room with a view."
The video Menon shared shows the natural light display framed by the spacecraft's window, the glow of the phenomenon visible against the black of space and the curve of Earth beyond. In his post, Menon was precise about the technical conditions of the shot—a 15-millimeter lens, a quarter-second shutter speed, ISO 8000—and noted that the station was moving forward while the window faced in the direction of travel. The structural elements around the window frame are visible in the footage, a reminder that this was not a pristine view but one captured from inside a working spacecraft in orbit.
The aurora footage arrived at a particular moment in Menon's mission. Two days before sharing the video, on August 6, he had completed his first spacewalk. Menon and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir spent six hours and twenty-seven minutes outside the station, working through the tasks assigned to them during what NASA designated as US Spacewalk 96. The work concluded at 12:30 a.m. Indian Standard Time on August 7. For Menon, an astronaut of Indian origin, this was his first time operating in the vacuum outside the orbital laboratory. Meir, by contrast, was a veteran—this was her sixth spacewalk.
The primary objective of their excursion was to prepare the station's 3B power channel for future upgrades. This work was not incidental. The spacewalk was laying groundwork for the installation of new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, known as IROSA. These arrays are designed to increase the amount of electricity the station can generate. As the ISS continues its long-running operations in orbit—now in its third decade—additional power capacity becomes essential. The station's systems require it. The scientific research conducted aboard requires it. The ability to sustain operations and support the work of the astronauts and cosmonauts who live and work there depends on it.
Menon's moment at the window, capturing the aurora in its ethereal glow, came between the physical labor of spacewalking and the ongoing maintenance that keeps the station functioning. It was a brief respite, a glimpse of what it means to live in orbit—to see phenomena that exist only at the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and the vacuum of space, framed by the thin walls of a spacecraft, visible only because you are already so far from home.
Citas Notables
Menon described the aurora view from the Dragon window as 'a room with a view'— Anil Menon, via social media post
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