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Check out astronaut's amazing Vines from the International Space Station

Astronaut Terry Virts has been on the ISS since December, taking video. Luckily for us, he likes to share.

Michael Franco
Freelancer Michael Franco writes about the serious and silly sides of science and technology for CNET and other pixel and paper pubs. He's kept his fingers on the keyboard while owning a B&B in Amish country, managing an eco-resort in the Caribbean, sweating in Singapore, and rehydrating (with beer, of course) in Prague. E-mail Michael.
Michael Franco
2 min read

As a European Space Agency video of the recent solar eclipse shows, things just look better from space. NASA astronaut Terry Virts seems to agree, as he's been filling his Vine page with some pretty astounding clips of what our homeworld looks like from aboard the International Space Station. One of the most impressive clips is the one above Virts posted just two days ago that shows the extremely vivid northern lights that the Earth's been experiencing this week due to a massive solar storm.

Virts is the flight engineer on Expedition 42 to the ISS, where he has been since late 2014. He's due to come back to Earth in May. In addition to maintaining a Vine page filled with stunning short space videos, Virts also keeps up a pretty vibrant Twitter site where he frequently posts great shots of Earth from above.

In an interview with NASA prior to his launch (PDF), Virts said one of the things he was most looking forward to on his second trip to the ISS was spending time in its glass observatory pod known as the Cupola Observational Module, which he helped install. That, and floating.

"The views of Earth from there are just amazing," he said. "When I was there the first time I only had a few chances to look out the Cupola because we were so busy and then we had to leave right after we installed it. So I am looking forward to being able to live in space for six months and see Earth, see space. But I am really looking forward to not just seeing but experiencing space. I am looking forward to floating again. It was just fun floating and I have not been able to do that for years so I am really looking forward to that."

Fortunately Virts is a generous man, which means that the rest of us Earthlings can live vicariously through his great images and video clips, some of which are assembled below. If only we could float too.