NASA image shows ISS tiny passing across a massive moon

Morgan Whitaker
Updated
Striking NASA Image Shows ISS Looking Tiny With Moon In Background
Striking NASA Image Shows ISS Looking Tiny With Moon In Background


NASA often shares photos taken from the International Space Station, but on Sunday, NASA shared a picture of the space station itself.

The image posted to Instagram shows the space home zipping past the moon, appearing as a tiny dot against the vast lunar landscape.

Though it looks like the ISS is right on top of the celestial body, the two are actually a great distance from one another.

View this post on Instagram

Look closely & don't miss it! The International Space Station, with a crew of six onboard, is seen in silhouette as it transits the moon at roughly five miles per second, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015, Woodford, VA. Onboard are: NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren: Russian Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky) #nasa #moon #bluemoon #iss #spacestation #isscrew #spotthestation #photography #space

A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on Aug 2, 2015 at 8:10pm PDT



The space station's orbit occurs about 300 miles above Earth, while the moon is roughly 238 thousand miles away.

At the time the photo was taken, the station was traveling at approximately 5 miles per second.

There are currently 6 astronauts on board: 2 from the US, 3 from Russia, and 1 from Japan.

Check out some of NASA's other amazing Instagrams:

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