A week later two massive explosions echoed through Beirut, Lebanon, a NASA astronaut shared his view of the capital from orbit and his best wishes to its inhabitants.
The city experienced two powerful explosions at its port in the local evening of August 4th. At least 171 people were killed and thousands injured, according to the Associated Press. Nearly 3,000 tons (2.5 million kilograms) of a chemical called ammonium nitrate stored at the port may have caused the incident. On Tuesday (August 11), NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who lives on the International Space Station, shared the orbital laboratory’s view of the shock city.
“Think of Beirut today,” Cassidy wrote in the tweet. “My heart goes out to all those who have been affected by the recent tragedy. Send love from @Space_Station.”
In pictures: The Expedition 63 mission to the International Space Station
Think of Beirut today. My heart goes out to all those who have been affected by the recent tragedy. Send love from @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/XMIDZK3g3T11 August 2020
Cassidy’s views magnify a host of satellite images of destruction caused by the explosions, including NASA analyzes of data collected by the fleet of the European space agency of the Copernicus Sentinel Earth-observing satellites to determine where the ground shifted during the explosions.
Cassidy is currently the only NASA astronaut in space, living on board the orbiting laboratory with Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. The trio arrived in April and will remain in orbit until October. Next month, three NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut are scheduled to launch on the first complete mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spaceship to round out the grid of the space station.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
