"Big storm swirling off the Irish coast on the 9th of May," Cmdr Chris Hadfield tweeted along with this photo he took from the International Space Station. Photo by Chris Hadfield, via Twitter
Cmdr Chris Hadfield is to return to Earth on Monday after inhabiting the International Space Station since December, where he has been sharing his photos of the planet on social media.
Hadfield and his fellow astronauts Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko are due to land at about 10.30pm EDT (3.30am GMT) near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on 13 May.
The Canadian Space Agency will webcast the landing, beginning at 9.30pm EDT (2.30am GMT).
Besides carrying out scientific experiments aboard the orbiting outpost, the Canadian astronaut has been photographing cities, towns, lakes, rivers, peaks and valleys down below from his vantage point some 340 kilometres (211 miles) above Earth. Hadfield has then been sharing the images on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Here’s a collection of some of Hadfield’s most recent photos from space, all taken between 4-9 May:
California – San Francisco and wine country. “A favourite place on Earth,” Hadfield tweeted.
Moscow, Russia.
Cape Town, South Africa, with the southern Atlantic Ocean.
The border between Mexico and the US. “Same land, different politics,” Hadfield wrote.
Farms in Turkey.
It may resemble the opening shot to EastEnders, but this is actually Budapest, Hungary, with the River Danube clearly visible.
A mining town in northern China. “The open pits gleam with blue from space,” tweeted Hadfield.
“Looking north from our orbit to the forbidding rock and ice of Greenland,” Hadfield wrote of this shot.
Tokyo harbour and Mount Fuji, in Japan. Can you spot it?
Maputo, capital of Mozambique.
Eastern Canada, with the province of Nova Scotia on the left.
Saudi Arabia.
