The Greatest and Most Unusual Travel Photo of All Time?
Everything about the image is just so amazing: The poof-y shapes of the clouds in the background... The electric blue line that marks the boundary of the atmosphere... The absolute void of color that is space juxtaposed against the brilliant white space suit... The fact that you can see the photographer's reflection in the mask of the astronaut... The slight, slo-mo wave the astronaut is giving, as if to say, "Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows..."
In my opinion, this may be the greatest travel photo of all time. I love it.

Be sure to check out the larger image here. And for other great travel photos -- none of which were taken in space -- be sure to browse through our Photos of the Day.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jun 24th 2007 @ 7:41AM
yossi said...
they are in the cargo bay of the space shuttle. you can clearly see the docking tube to the space station on the left (white thing with grey pokadots). going farther up you can see one of the trusses of the station, and one of the solar panels (wavy looking thing). the thing that looks like its sticking out of the photographers back is the shuttles canadian arm. and the thing accross the top right is the stations robot arm (i think).
actually an even more interesting picture than you decribed.
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 9:21AM
Peter Paris said...
Is that an iPod on his wrist?
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 9:28AM
Jeremy said...
Wow, very neat picture. I have to ask, though. In the black space area, there are 2 pixles. 1 red and 1 blue. I wanted to at first say it was error, but then made me realize they could be planets! Jupiter and ?? What do you think? Did anyone catch that while viewing the large picture? The blue one nears Earth and the red is near the astronauts sholder (Or equipment behind him, actually).
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 10:25AM
Visi said...
to post #2 they look like pixels gone bad thats all, planets would reflect the light off the sun on their atmosphere and would appear to be light points jsut like stars.
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 11:21AM
ed strasser said...
This is b******t. Everyone knows that we didn't walk on the moon, it was faked and the Space Shuttle is fiction. All the money for NASA is secretly funneled to the CIA for it's illegal "war on terror".
You're all fools.
Sincerely,
Ed
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 11:37AM
Ben said...
It sorta looks like he has an old iPod nano tucked up his sleeve :P
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 1:24PM
Roy said...
Yeah, I'm with Ed! I don't even think the moon really exists; it's just something the government fooled us all into believing *just* so they could pretend to land on it! HA! Nice try, but I'm not that stupid.
Fight the power!
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Jun 24th 2007 @ 5:05PM
Edward Glen said...
@yossi, To be clear, on the bits of station in the reflection - the white wavy thing is actually a radiator panel to shed heat from the electronics and such in the station. The solar panel in that image is actually the greyish looking thing with orange edges that appears to be parallel to the truss. Though that solar panel is now folded up and ready to be moved to the end of the truss.
Judging by what looks be a japanese flag on the astronauts shoulder I'd say the picture is of Soichi Noguchi on the STS 114 mission.
A very cool picture indeed
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Jun 25th 2007 @ 2:07AM
Jerry said...
The astronaut in the photo is Piers Sellers, and the photographer in the reflection is Mike Fossum. This was taken on a mission last summer while the spacewalkers here were testing out a 50 ft extension to the robotic arm on the space shuttle that would allow them access to the tiles underneath in case they ever need to be repaired. I don't really see the pixels that Jeremy is referring to, but it is possible that they could be stars. In space, stars appear multiple colors that we don't alwasy see on the surface because of atmospheric absorption and scattering. But in this photo, it would be unlikely to be a star since the camera's iris is probably focusing on the much brighter planet and astronaut in the foreground.
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Jun 25th 2007 @ 2:22AM
Jerry said...
I'm thinking STS-121-- I think Edward's right on it being Soichi of the 114 mission.
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Jun 25th 2007 @ 12:31PM
Alex said...
to ed about the moon comment. are you saying the picture is b******t or the moon landing? because the picture is from the space shuttle which never went to the moon, and yes...we never went to the moon. stupid CIA
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Sep 6th 2007 @ 8:48PM
k.p. said...
HELLO!!! ROY!!do u not look up every night!! THE MOON IS RIGHT THERE!!! u know the white-grey round thing!!!! OR are u saying that round thing is just a phigment of my imagination?? just an illusion that most people see??
dummy!
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Sep 6th 2007 @ 9:43PM
Carlie said...
Haha. Ed and Roy. Good job. Im sorry but are you two idiots or somthing? Landing on the moon was bull, yeah, and the earth is flat and the sun and planets revolve around us...right?
Go back to grade school kiddies. You might learn a thing or two.
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Sep 6th 2007 @ 9:50PM
Rob said...
If the moon's not real...how do you explain all the werewolves running around?
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Sep 7th 2007 @ 2:55AM
Michele said...
They cheated
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Oct 23rd 2007 @ 10:00AM
Drew said...
My comment on saying any American Suburb is the worst.
Too broad a brush. American suburbs are not just bedroom communities any more. Many have diverse recreation, arts interest, universities, ample events schedules to fill up a week and are well enough thought of that Sister Cities programs from Europe and Asia participate in exchanges on technical and cultural bases.
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