Timelapse video made during ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second mission to the International Space Station, “Alpha”. The camera is setup to take pictures at intervals of two a second, and the pictures are then edited into this video that plays at 25 pictures a second. The video is around 12 times faster than real speed.

Thomas shared this video on social media with the caption:

“A day timelapse that I find very relaxing. Unwind after your day with a flight over the Atlantic to arrive in the mouth of the Mediterranean and over the Alps. Engineer nerd alert: see the solar arrays move on the left? They do this 16 times a day (every 24 hours) to follow the Sun and provide us with electricity, and have been doing so for 20 years. The solar arrays rotate on their longitudinal axis too. We hardly think about it but what an achievement of technology, design and engineering.”

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by France’s space agency CNES.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.