During an International Space Station flyover of Australia, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams (@Astro_Jeff) captured a colorful image of the coast and shared it with his social media followers on March 29, 2016, writing, “The unique terrain of the northwestern Australian coast.”
This is Williams’ fourth spaceflight and third long-duration stay on the space station. Williams served as the flight engineer and lead spacewalker for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-101 mission in 2000. He was a flight engineer for space station’s Expedition 13 in 2006, when the station had only two modules and three crew members. In 2009 and 2010, he served as a flight engineer on Expedition 21 and commanded Expedition 22, when the Tranquility module and cupola were added to the station. During that mission, he also became the first astronaut to interact live with NASA’s social media fans and followers.
During this six-month mission, Williams will become the American with the most cumulative days in space — 534 — surpassing Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly. He is scheduled to return to Earth in September 2016.