Space Station Crew Sees Hurricane Irma's Power from Orbit (Photos, Video)

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy took this photo of Hurricane Irma from orbit on Sept. 7, 2017 while he flew overhead aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz crew capsule is visible at left.
Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy took this photo of Hurricane Irma from orbit on Sept. 7, 2017 while he flew overhead aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz crew capsule is visible at left. (Image credit: Roscosmos/Sergey Ryazanskiy)

Hurricane Irma is barreling through the Caribbean as a massive Category 5 storm and its fury unmistakable even from orbit, according to the crew on the International Space Station (ISS).

"Hurricane Irma is clearly visible from the ISS," Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy wrote in a Twitter post showing his photos of Irma from space. "It is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever."

It was the sheer size of Hurricane Irma that left Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency in awe. On Wednesday (Sept. 6), he had to snap several photos of the storm just to take it all in. [Hurricane Irma in Photos: Space Views of the Monster Storm]

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy took this photo of Hurricane Irma from orbit on Sept. 7, 2017 while he flew overhead aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz crew capsule is visible at left. (Image credit: Roscosmos/Sergey Ryazanskiy)

"One image wasn't enough for what may be the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever, stay safe down there," Nespoli wrote on Twitter.    

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Cameras mounted to the exterior of the space station have been beaming views of Hurricane Irma daily as the orbiting lab sails high over the storm. The station makes 16 orbits of Earth each day. 

As of  2 p.m. EDT today (Sept. 7), Irma had maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and was moving across the Caribbean about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north-northeast of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center. In Florida, where residents are preparing for Irma's arrival later this week, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral announced it will close on Friday (Sept. 8) and remain so through at least Monday (Sept. 11). 

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In Puerto Rico, where Irma made landfall late Wednesday, officials with the  Arecibo Observatory — the world's second-largest radio telescope — reported that the iconic observatory appears to have survived the storm relatively unscathed, though damage evaluations are ongoing. 

Ryazanskiy, Nespoli and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik make up the Expedition 53 crew living on the International Space Station. The trio will be joined by three new crewmembers next week. 

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.