Preparing for his inaugural space walk on the International Space Station tomorrow, Jan. 15, British astronaut Tim Peake captured a spectacular lightning storm over the African continent today:
The bursts of light were captured over the span of 2 seconds.
On the first days of a six-month long assignment at the ISS, the UK’s “first official astronaut” has been taking awe-inspiring images of the earth’s surface and sharing them on his social media channels. “Every day I see new and amazing things up here,” Peake wrote on Instagram.
The 43-year-old recently won a coveted spot on the European Space Agency’s new astronaut training program, besting 8,000 applicants, and traveled to the ISS on Dec. 15.
Following tradition, Peake also selected three songs for his historic sojourn: Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, U2’s Beautiful Day and aptly, Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars.