English: The astronauts of space shuttle Columbia, flight STS-107 lost their lives in a tragic accident upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. On January 22, 2003, they captured this more benign view of the atmosphere and of the Moon. Looking west over the Atlantic Ocean, the crew glimpsed the many cloud formations that help make our Blue Marble beautiful and livable.

Astronaut photograph STS107-E-5311 was acquired on January 22, 2003, with a Kodak DCS760C camera using a 40 millimeter lens, and is provided by the Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the STS-107 crew. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.