Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items14
1
Earth From Space in 4K
Published
NASA's own long-form reel, and the easiest place to start: just over 52 minutes of ultra-high-definition footage shot from the station between 2019 and 2020 and published on NASA+ for Earth Day 2024.
The length is the point. It plays as a slow window onto passing coastlines, cloud fields and the thin line of the atmosphere, so put it on the biggest screen in the house and let it run.
More about Earth From Space in 4K2
Live Video From the International Space Station
The only pick here that is happening right now. NASA's live page points to this feed for space station views, so whatever is on screen is the planet as it looks at this moment, roughly 250 miles below. The picture here is a NASA photo of the station itself, taken from a Crew Dragon in November 2021, not a frame from the feed.
Expect gaps. The station spends part of every orbit in darkness, and NASA notes the video can be interrupted when the station loses its link with the communications network or the onboard cameras are reconfigured. That unpredictability is part of the appeal: nothing is edited, sped up or scored.
More about Live Video From the International Space Station3
Earth Views From Space: 1 Hour Long in 4K
ESA's counterpart to the NASA reel, and a useful companion because it draws on different crews. Over an hour of 4K footage comes mainly from Thomas Pesquet's Proxima mission and Alexander Gerst's Horizons mission, with extra clips from Samantha Cristoforetti and Paolo Nespoli.
Most scenes were filmed from the Cupola, the European-built observatory module, so watching both long reels back to back gives two agencies' takes on the same view.
More about Earth Views From Space: 1 Hour Long in 4K4
Alexander Gerst's Earth Timelapses
The classic ISS time-lapse, released by ESA in December 2014 and still one of the best six minutes of orbital footage around. It combines 12,500 images that Gerst took during his six-month Blue Dot mission, often by leaving cameras firing at set intervals while he worked on experiments or prepared for spacecraft dockings.
Because the frames were shot as part of ordinary station work, it feels like a crew member's eye view rather than a staged production, and the short running time makes it the easy one to share.
More about Alexander Gerst's Earth Timelapses5
Space Station 20th: Longest Continuous Timelapse From Space
Gerst's second mission produced his longest time-lapse: about 21,375 images taken from the Cupola on October 6, 2018, released for the station's 20th anniversary and shown 12.5 times faster than real time.
At just under 15 minutes it follows the station through two orbits in one continuous sequence, with lightning storms below and the station's rotating solar wings, radiators and the Japanese HTV-7 cargo spacecraft in the frame. Watch this one to understand how an orbit actually unfolds.
More about Space Station 20th: Longest Continuous Timelapse From Space6
Looking Down During a Day on Earth Timelapse
Most station footage looks out toward the horizon. This one looks down. Recorded on September 20, 2021, during Thomas Pesquet's second mission, it was shot at two frames a second and plays about 12 times faster than real time.
Without the curve of the horizon in the way, the ground reads almost like a map scrolling past, which makes it the one to choose for terrain, coastlines and cloud patterns rather than the glow of the atmosphere.
More about Looking Down During a Day on Earth Timelapse7
ISS Views Aurora From the November 11-13, 2025 Geomagnetic Storm
The newest recorded footage on the list, and the most colorful. NASA Johnson's Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit built this time-lapse from station photos taken on November 12, 2025, between 07:13 and 07:35 UTC.
It starts over the northern Pacific, crosses North America and ends looking north over the Atlantic, with green, purple and red aurora set off by a coronal mass ejection linked to an X5.1 solar flare the day before. If you saw that storm from the ground, this is the same night from above.
More about ISS Views Aurora From the November 11-13, 2025 Geomagnetic Storm8
Aurora Australis as Seen From ISS
The southern lights, from NASA Johnson's Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit. Made from station photos taken on August 17, 2022, over roughly 20 minutes, the sequence begins over the Southern Ocean between Africa and Antarctica with green and red aurora throughout.
The payoff comes near the end, when Australia rolls into view and the yellow night lights of Perth appear under the glow. Pair it with the November 2025 storm footage to see aurora over both hemispheres from orbit.
More about Aurora Australis as Seen From ISS9
Landfall of Hurricane Michael From Space
Storms are where the station's view turns sobering. Cameras outside the station filmed Hurricane Michael at 12:58 p.m. EDT on October 10, 2018, as it made landfall over the Florida Panhandle, and NASA Johnson posted the footage.
From the ground a hurricane is wind and rain; from orbit it is one enormous, organized system filling the frame. That shift in perspective is the reason this short clip earns its place alongside the prettier time-lapses.
More about Landfall of Hurricane Michael From Space10
Crew Earth Observations: Special Videos
The archive for anyone who wants to know exactly what they are looking at. NASA Johnson's Crew Earth Observations page collects dozens of time-lapses assembled from astronaut photos, each with its expedition, date and a note on the route flown.
Highlights include From Night to Day to Night Again, two and a half orbits along the day-night line shot on January 3, 2013, and Lightning Storms from Uganda to Zanzibar Island. The page is plain and the videos are short, but every one is traceable back to the original photo frames. The picture here is a related Expedition 34 photo of the San Francisco Bay Area at night, taken the same month, rather than a frame from the videos.
More about Crew Earth Observations: Special Videos11
Space Observatory Cupola: A Window to Space
Watch this to understand where much of the footage on this list is filmed. Alexander Gerst demonstrates the European-built Cupola, the observatory module that gives crews a 360-degree view of Earth and the station.
The room is a workplace as much as a viewpoint: crews use it to watch approaching spacecraft and spacewalks and to control the robotic arm, and its multi-layer windows have external shutters for protection. It arrived on Space Shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission in February 2010.
More about Space Observatory Cupola: A Window to Space12
Earth Views From Cupola During Ignis Mission
A recent look through the same seven windows. ESA published this clip in July 2025 from the Ignis mission, when project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski flew to the station on Axiom Mission 4 for 20 days. The picture here is a related NASA photo of the Axiom Mission 4 Dragon approaching the station, not a frame from the clip.
It pairs well with the Gerst tour: one shows how the Cupola works, the other simply shows what a visiting astronaut saw from it a decade later, from what ESA calls a favorite spot for astronauts.
More about Earth Views From Cupola During Ignis Mission13
STEMonstrations: Earth Observations
Published
An astronaut talking through the view, in under four minutes. Randy Bresnik discusses one of the best parts of station life, looking at Earth, and how the station serves as a platform for observing environmental problems such as natural disasters and climate change.
It is an educational short rather than a cinematic one, but it answers the question the time-lapses leave open: why astronauts point cameras at the ground at all.
More about STEMonstrations: Earth Observations14
Down to Earth: The Astronaut's Perspective
Published
The longest astronaut-led piece here, at about 29 minutes. NASA astronauts take viewers on a journey to the station and explore what NASA calls the life-changing experience of the orbital perspective.
Choose this when you want the human side of the view rather than the view alone. It suits a sit-down watch more than background viewing, and it is the entry that best explains why so many crews come home talking about the planet differently.
More about Down to Earth: The Astronaut's Perspective
