Satellite views International Space Station from only 43 miles away (photo)
Satellite, meet space station.
HEO Robotics, which monitors the area around Earth and observes orbiting objects with space-based sensors, captured a stunning image of the International Space Station (ISS) using one of its satellites.
The two objects were moving at 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) a second relative to each other, making the orbital image all the more notable.
“Non-Earth imaging provides the best view of satellites in space,” HEO Robotics wrote Tuesday (May 13) on X, formerly Twitter. “We captured this image of the ISS as it passed over the Indian Ocean from a satellite 69.06 km [43 miles] away.”
Related: Track the ISS: How and where to see it
The Australian commercial imaging company has already captured some rare looks of orbiting satellites with its own fleet, in a demonstration of high-resolution imagery used to keep customers apprised of space activities.
For example, HEO Robotics obtained images of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ERS-2 Earth observation satellite on Feb. 14, 2024. ERS-2 was on its way back to Earth’s atmosphere after 16 years of scientific observations.
ESA made sure that ERS-2 would come down in a safe splashdown zone, performing dozens of deorbiting maneuvers after the mission ended in 2011 to steer it to a responsible demise.
And in 2023, HEO Robotics released a time-lapse series showing how China put together its three-module Tiangong space station.
The video showed the Tianhe core module working alone and receiving Tianzhou cargo vessels and crewed Shenzhou spacecraft. Subsequently, two experiment modules, Wentian and Mengtian, were added, giving Tiangong a “T-shape.”
“Using our non-Earth imaging capability, we witnessed a story unfold over an 18-month timeframe. Each stage you see was verified with a photo taken from another satellite in space,” the company posted then on X.
