Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from Europe's space agency ESA otoday published still images taken aboard the International Space Station on her social media page to create a time-lapse journey from the Canary Islands to Italy.

ESA stated previously that even though its astronauts onboard the Space Station spend as much time as possible on science, Cristoforetti still finds the time to present earth-bound fans with this unique bird's eye view of Europe.

The International Space Station crew currently consists of NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts, Russians Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov, as well as Cristoforetti.

Astronauts usually spend six-months within this scientific base which is a result of a combined effort by 15 nations.

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