Take a look out your window wherever you work and it most likely looks like a trash-filled alley behind a fast food restaurant in comparison to the view astronauts get aboard the International Space Station ().
Retired NASA Astronaut Terry Virts is well aware of this, and used a lot of his time on board the space station taking incredible shots of the Earth down below, or up above depending on his orientation.
In fact, as Virts’ second trip to the ISS came to a close, a month later than had been scheduled, he still wanted to remain in space for that view.
“I was ready to stay up there because there were still pictures I wanted to take, there were still videos I wanted to do,” Virts told in 2015. “If you’re an astronaut flying in space, you gotta look at that as your last flight. And so you gotta enjoy it. And I’ve got the rest of my life to be on Earth.”
The extra time away from family, friends, and gravity (well, ) may have been worth it for one shot currently being shared around the . On his last day on the ISS, and the last day in space before he retired as an astronaut, Virts got a of the pyramids from above.
The only better view is .
[H/T: ]