Portrait of Space-Walking Astronaut Suni Williams Is Mind-Boggling

by · Peta Pixel

Since veteran astronaut and fantastic photographer Don Pettit returned from his record-setting fifth expedition to space in April, he has been regularly sharing photos he captured aboard the ISS. His most recent one is a remarkable portrait of his fellow astronaut, Sunita “Suni” Williams, floating in space during her ninth spacewalk. The International Space Station’s (ISS) solar array is in the background, delivering an incredible sense of scale.

Pettit and Williams were joined on Expedition 71/72 to the ISS by Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Aleksandr Gorbunov, plus fellow NASA astronauts Barry E. Wilmore and Nick Hague. Expedition 72 lasted from September 23, 2024, until April 19 of this year, although the astronauts arrived in staggered waves. Wilmore and Williams were the first to arrive at the ISS on June 6, 2024. Pettit arrived on September 11 alongside Ovchinin and Vagner.

During his lengthy stay in space, Pettit captured a lot of fantastic shots, many of which PetaPixel has already featured. One of the most incredible parts of Pettit’s recent expedition was his collaborative project “From Above & Below” with Earth-based National Geographic photographer Babak Tafreshi. The duo captured the same events from two very different perspectives: Tafreshi on terra firma and Pettit from space. Some of Pettit’s photos for that project and more were captured using a custom star tracker built by RIT’s Ted Kinsman, who detailed his project for PetaPixel.

Of the many remarkable shots Pettit captured during his recent cosmic adventure, his portrait of Williams is undeniably one of the most breathtaking. Seeing an astronaut floating in space is always special, but to see Williams against the backdrop of the ISS’s solar array is distinct and special.

Portrait of Sunita “Suni” Williams on her ninth spacewalk. | Credit: Don Pettit

Friend of PetaPixel and exceptional astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy commented on Pettit’s portrait of Williams: “This photo is incredible. Really drives home the scale of the array!”

“My crewmate Suni Williams on her 9th spacewalk! Her extended mission time during Expedition 72 gave her the opportunity to conduct another, and she did a great job! It was a busy day but I managed to take this pic of her next to the ISS solar array, what I think is a good visual of the size of station,” Pettit himself remarked on Reddit.

Image credits: Photo by Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit)