Hello, Is This Planet Earth?: My View from the International Space Station

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“It’s impossible to look down on Earth from space and not be mesmerized by the fragile beauty of our planet…I became determined to share this unique perspective of the one place we call home…

This book captures my personal journey of discovery, not just the discovery of Earth—a stunning oasis of life in the vastness of space—but also the discovery of a newfound passion for photography…

I hope that these images fire your imagination like they have mine. And I hope that I am able to share with you some of the same sense of awe that I first experienced when looking down on planet Earth.”

The above extracts come from the introduction of this stunningly beautiful book by Tim Peake. He is a European Space Agency astronaut. He finished his 186-day mission (Dec 15, 2015 to June 18, 2015) working on the International Space Station (ISS).

This book consists of about 140 photographs that Peake took while on his ISS mission. All the photos have captions. The captions, amongst other things, give directions on what landmarks to look for.

As you can imagine, all the photos are unique and gorgeous. Surprisingly we’re not told at what altitude they were taken from but I discovered that the ISS orbits our planet at an average altitude of about 240 miles or 400 km.

These photos give an unforgettable new perspective of our oceans, mountains, forests, and deserts. As well, we get to see aerial views of the world’s cities and the breathtaking beauty of the aurora.

Finally, the only problem I had is that I could not see all the things that we were directed to see in the captions. This was because some of the location directions were too general. There is one photo where the structures were actually circled. Doing this was quite helpful. Later in the book, Peake suggests using a magnifying glass. I did this and it was extremely helpful. Unfortunately, it was suggested to do this late in the book.

In conclusion, this is a remarkable book that gives us a view of the Earth from over 200 miles above it. Strangely, I felt closer to this planet that I ever did before!!

(2016; introduction; timeline; 5 chapters; main narrative 235 pages; about the author [untitled]; acknowledgements; picture list)



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Minus a star for size of book. Its not a coffee table book, its a lap book. Pics are nice, good explanation - but some pics are split into 2 pages instead of one because of size - 9 x 9" - 240 pages.

Bought as gift, the recipient was pleased

Really nice picture book from Tim Peake’s ISS Mission.

It's a good book to know what's the earth view from sky, but the country area coverage is a fewer than expected.

nice book. great for putting on the coffee table. great pictures. since most people can't go into space, this is the closest way to experience what it is like being in space looking down on planet earth.