NASA astronaut shares photo of Twin Cities from 250 miles up
As shout outs to the Twin Cities come, they don't get much better than this.
This was the view enjoyed by Nasa astronaut Shane Kimbrough Thursday morning as he and his International Space Station colleagues hovered above the U.S. in Earth's orbit.
It shows the Twin Cities metro area in all its illuminated glory, with the downtown areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul clear to see (the really bright lights).
The surrounding cities of St. Cloud, Mankato and Rochester are also visible (MPR has put together an annotated version you can see here.)
The ISS is orbiting the Earth at a height of just under 250 miles, and circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of around 17,500 mph, according to Space.com.
Commander Kimbrough, from Texas, is one of six astronauts currently at the space station, NASA says.
The last time we got a fly-by from the ISS was in September 2015, when former Hennepin County Medical Center doctor turned NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren took this shot of Minneapolis.
