Since fireworks were not allowed on the space station, NASA astronauts improvised with camera flashes to celebrate Independence Day.
International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Matthew Dominick experimented with “light painting” — a long exposure in a dark room that illuminates a subject with a light source — during Expedition 71’s Fourth of July free time.
“No fireworks on ISS, so we used camera flashes instead. Experimented with ‘light painting’ today,” Dominick wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Dominick has been practicing time-lapses on the space station in between his regular duties, taking stunning photos of Earth and the station in motion. But for the American holiday, the NASA astronaut mounted the Stars and Stripes to the back of Japan’s Kibo module and played around with internal lighting, then posted the results on social media.
Two of the photos show Dominick hopping over Kibo in different ways – in one he zooms through the frame like a superhero, and in another he’s more like a space dive. The grin on his face is infectious.
Related: NASA Astronauts Send 4th of July Message to Earth from ISS (Video)
Dominick described how the time-lapses were staged: “Lights turned off. Our own flashes manually triggered. Just ambient light from computers and experimental LEDs.” He also included some photographic stats, for beginning space photographers: 15-second exposures, f22, 24mm, ISO 500.
For one photo, he got much of the long-term Expedition 71 crew and the two Boeing Starliner astronauts (in space for a shorter mission) to join him on Kibo. Each astronaut used his own light source to illuminate himself in the semi-darkness of the research facility.
The group was instructed to “flash at their own discretion, within the 15-second exposure time of course,” Dominick explained in a response about how they staged it.
While Dominick uses his free time to have fun playing with photos, all astronauts are trained in space photography to help make important Earth observations during their stay in space.
“Astronauts often capture stunning images of the northern lights, nighttime city lights, and the horizon, but they can also photograph natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and wildfires from space,” NASA officials wrote in 2021. (For example, Expedition 71 recently captured images of Hurricane Beryl from space.)
“In fact, astronaut photography can play a critical role in helping scientists and decision makers monitor hazards in near real time,” the NASA posting added. “While most traditional satellites only take pictures looking straight down at Earth, astronauts can capture images from a variety of perspectives.”