Hurricane Laura captured in stunning pictures from space
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy photographed Hurricane Laura from the International Space Station. (Chris Cassidy/NASA)
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy has photographed Hurricane Laura from his vantage point on the International Space Station.
“Views of Hurricane Laura taken from @Space_Station today. Stay safe everyone,” Cassidy, the Space Station commander, tweeted late Wednesday.
Hurricane Laura pounded the Gulf Coast for hours with ferocious wind, torrential rains and rising seawater as it roared ashore over southwestern Louisiana near the Texas border early Thursday.
The National Hurricane Center said Laura slammed the coast with winds of 150 mph at 2 a.m. EDT as a Category 4 hurricane near Cameron, a 400-person community about 30 miles east of the Texas border. Laura has slowly weakened to a Category 2 hurricane.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy photographed Hurricane Laura from the International Space Station. (Chris Cassidy/NASA)
Last week, Cassidy also captured incredible images of Hurricane Genevieve from space.
A U.S. Navy Captain, Cassidy spent 11 years as a member of the Navy’s SEALs Team earlier in his career. He was picked to be a NASA astronaut in May 2004.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy photographed Hurricane Laura from the International Space Station. (Chris Cassidy/NASA)
Cassidy recently bid farewell to his fellow NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in their historic mission to the ISS. Hurley and Behnken splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Aug. 2, ending their two-month trip to space.
The mission marked the first time that astronauts have launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy photographed Hurricane Laura from the International Space Station. (Chris Cassidy/NASA)
The Associated Press contributed to this article.