anyone who has flown back from a holiday at night will have marvelled at the twinkling blanket of lights that cover towns and cities after dark but the crew of the iss has gone one better, by capturing this light show from the international space station's orbit around 250 miles (400km) above the earth the six second vine loop was posted at 932pm gmt last night and shows the station soaring over the uk and scandinavia scroll down for video  the bright section of light in the east of the uk is london (pictured) cornwall and devon are in relative darkness as the station moves towards scandinavia, the bright lights of brussels and antwerp in belgium and rotterdam in the netherlands can be seen  the vine was taken by expedition 42 crew member samantha cristoferetti during the clip, the iss begins by approaching the uk from the south west hitting cornwall first, the north west coast of france is visible in the bottom right hand corner but paris is just out of shot the bright section of light in the east of the uk is london, while devon and cornwall are in relative darkness and as the station moves towards scandinavia, the bright lights of brussels and antwerp in belgium and rotterdam in the netherlands can be seen the 37 year old flight engineer   alongside her colleagues commander barry wilmore, flight engineer terry virts and russian cosmonauts elena serova, alexander samoukutyaev and anton shkaplerov   has been on board the station since 9 november last year tweeting the vine from her @astrosamantha twitter handle, ms cristoferetti wrote: 'of all the lights from uk to scandinaviawhich ones are yours? #spacevine' the italian astronaut then posted the same tweet in her native language  the team is due to return to earth in may tweeting the vine from her @astrosamantha twitter handle, ms cristoferetti wrote: 'of all the lights from uk to scandinaviawhich ones are yours? #spacevine' the italian astronaut then posted the same tweet in her native language during her four month stay on the station ms cristoferreti has filmed herself getting a haircut in space and released a collection of images called nasa: landscapes one of the most striking images in this collection shows the lights of the south coast of england and the north coast of france, taken above the english channel in january the 37 year old flight engineer   alongside her colleagues commander barry wilmore, flight engineer terry virts and russian cosmonauts elena serova, alexander samoukutyaev and anton shkaplerov   has been on board the station (pictured) since 9 november last year  the current expedition 42 crew on iss recently created a collection of images taken from the station of landscapes on earth one of the most striking photos shows the glittering lights of the south coast of england and the north coast of france, taken above the english channel in january (pictured) it shows concentrations of light in major towns and in the distance a green light that looks like the northern lights glows  it shows concentrations of light in major cities and towns and in the distance, on the curvature of the earth, a green light that looks like the northern lights glows the entire international space station was spun 180 degrees yesterday and lowered slightly in its orbit last month so that visiting spacecraft can bring more cargo to the station the remarkable manoeuvre saw a european spacecraft ‘slow’ the speed of the station this changed the height of its orbit  by about 16 miles (25km), before the station was spun back again to its original position this is the same location where this vine was taken the international space station is marking its 15th anniversary of continuous human occupation on 2 november this year and since expedition 1 in 2000, the space station has been visited by more than 215 people as of november 2014, there have been 100 russian launches, 37 space shuttle launches, one test flight and three operational flights by spacex’s dragon as well as a test flight and two operational flights by orbital science’s cygnus a total of 184 spacewalks have been conducted in support of space station assembly totaling over 1,152 hours, or approximately 48 days the space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a us football field, including the end zones, and weighs 924,739 pounds the complex now has more livable room than a conventional six bedroom house, and has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a 360 degree bay window a second image in the nasa: landscapes collection was taken above the big island of hawaii in the north pacific ocean it was captured on 28 february and the peaks of volcanoes mauna loa and mauna kea can be seen in the centre of the 4,028 square mile (10,432 square kilometre) land mass mauna loa is the world's largest, and one of its most active, volcanoes 
scandinavia six second expedition 42 last night yosemite national park 15th iss vine uk the international space station samantha cristoforetti november ms critoferetti 9 november english channel
the international space station will celebrate its 15th anniversary of continuous human occupation in november  crew member samantha cristoforetti filmed this vine video on board the iss on last night  six second loop shows the station orbiting over the uk and scandinavia and the vine was posted at 932pm gmt  ms critoferetti is a flight engineer for expedition 42 and has been in orbit since 9 november  she recently released a collection of photos featuring the english channel and yosemite national park 