One of a series of pictures of metropolitan New York City taken by one of the Expedition Three crew members onboard the International Space Station (ISS) at various times during the day on September 11, 2001. A smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area where the World Trade Center was destroyed. The orbital outpost was flying at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. CREDIT: NASA. Click the image for full view.
View full size image at Space.com
Clara Moskowitz
SPACE.com
09 September 2011
The 9/11 terrorist attacks 10 years ago this week sent shockwaves not just around the planet, but into space as well.
The only American not on Earth on that day in 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, had a unique vantage point on the attacks. From the International Space Station, Culbertson snapped a photo of smoke streaming from the World Trade Center wreckage that day after two hijacked planes crashed into the Manhattan towers.
“I didn’t know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan,” Culbertson said in a new video released by NASA for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. “That’s when it really became painful because it was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends.” [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]
Overwhelming isolation
…the NASA astronaut couldn’t help but be affected by his position as the only American in space. [Video: Astronaut Frank Culbertson Recalls 9/11 From Above]
“The most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation,” Culbertson wrote. “The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming.”
Culbertson was told of the event, which killed about 3,000 people, when NASA flight surgeons radioed the station…
Mourning a friend
…The astronaut learned that day that his friend and U.S. Naval Academy classmate Charles “Chic” Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.
“What a terrible loss, but I’m sure Chic was fighting bravely to the end,” Culbertson wrote. “And tears don’t flow the same in space.”…
Read the entire article at Space.com
