Space Shuttle photographs show the earth as the astronauts see it. A wide variety of images from around the world are available. Most have been taken on standard transparency film and show true colors unlike some of the infrared view often obtained with satellites.

NASA has a selection of some of their best Space Shuttle photography posted on the web. The good news is that besides "screen resolution" imagery, they have some high resolution pictures in JPEG format available for free downloading. Some of the best images are available from the NASA Earth from Space site. For more comphehensive searching options use the Office of Earth Sciences site.

Many good pictures from the Space Shuttle can be found via the Internet. If you find an image that you like, note the image identification number. A 35mm slide of the image can be ordered from a NASA vendor at a very low cost, generally about $3.00 per image. Unfortunately, the old saying "you get what you pay for" is true in this case. These images are are 35mm duplicates of 70mm duplicates of the original film. The quality is rather low. Most of the images I have ordered in this manner have been low in contrast with a distinct blue cast. The good new is that the images can be improved with software enhancement.

Below is a scene looking down the Mississippi River to the south of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. On the left is the original image, and on the right is the digitally enhanced view.

Digital image enhancement of Space Shuttle photography

Other computer enhanced views from low cost duplicate slides can be seen on my Space Shuttle Views of Wisconsin page.