Japanese astronaut snaps stunning aurora photo from orbit | On the International Space Station Oct. 13 – 17, 2025

Science and maintenance work continued this week aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but updates regarding those activities are still all but halted by the U.S. government shutdown. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui’s social media posts were the exception…

Orbital observation

“Isn’t this one of the top five stunning views among all the photos taken from the ‘Kibo’ window? Self-praise here…” wrote Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 73 flight engineer, with a laugh from on board the International Space Station.

“The ISS took on a different posture than usual, so the view from the window changed as well,” explained Yui.

That post actually features two shots. In both, a band of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is seen above Earth’s horizon, with the space station’s solar arrays and the Kibo exposed facility in the foreground. One image also shows dancing green and red auroras, while the other captures a darker night sky.

“[It was a] special view that I wanted everyone to see, so I pushed through my work early to make time and took this photo,” said Yui.

Astronaut activity

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui has spent this week preparing for the arrival and capture of his country’s first next-generation HTV-X cargo vehicle. Liftoff is targeted for Monday (Oct. 20).

“I’m waiting for you! I’ll catch you gently, so don’t worry!” wrote Yui to the resupply ship still on Earth on Friday (Oct. 17).

Yui will use the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to grab hold of the HTV-X1 spacecraft once it is in proximity of the manipulator’s reach.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Oct. 17), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 73 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; fellow cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov; Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke of NASA; and Kimiya Yui of JAXA, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endeavour” attached to the zenith port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.

There are four docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress M-32 (93P) docked to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, SpaceX’s CRS-33 Dragon spacecraft docked to the forward port of Harmony Node 2 and Northrop Grumman’s NG-23 Cygnus XL, the “SS William C. ‘Willie’ McCool,” berthed to the Unity node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 24 years, 11 months and 15 days.