A NASA astronaut is due to fly back to Earth from the International Space Station Thursday, but he had to accomplish one last space tourist task before heading home: Terry Virts wanted to take a nice picture of the pyramids in Egypt from space.
The pyramids, and other man-made formations like the Great Wall of China, tend to blend in to the land surrounding them from space. It's actually really difficult, if not impossible, to see the Great Wall from space with the unaided eye, according to NASA.
It took me until my last day in space to get a good picture of these! pic.twitter.com/BChtFZBvk7— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) June 10, 2015
Other astronauts on the ISS have caught sight of the pyramids in Egypt before. A crewmember took a photo of the pyramids in 2014 as well.
Virts has been living and working on the Space Station for close to 200 days with his fellow crewmembers. In that time, he has beamed back some incredible images of Earth -- including beautiful photos and time-lapse images of auroras, lightning and the clouds of the Milky Way from orbit.
I will miss this view! pic.twitter.com/r0w0fKUhuv— Terry W. Virts (@AstroTerry) June 10, 2015
He isn't the only amateur photographer currently on the Space Station. European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti -- who recently became the world record holder for longest-lasting spaceflight by a woman -- has also documented her time on the ISS, taking photos of the planet and giving Earthlings a glimpse of what life is like in space.
Cristoforetti, Virts and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov are scheduled to fly back to Earth on Thursday morning aboard their Russian-built Soyuz capsule. The three crewmembers were originally expected to return to Earth last month, but that landing was delayed after an uncrewed Russian cargo ship failed to reach the ISS. Mission managers wanted to fully assess the situation before landings or launches could resume.
OK, I'm not going back to Earth without sharing one last picture of the Caribbean! #HelloEarth pic.twitter.com/CoFt0ORTcd— Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) June 10, 2015
You can watch the three crewmembers undock from the station live via NASA TV starting at 6 a.m. EDT. If all goes according to plan, they should land in Kazakhstan at 9:43 a.m. EDT.