Gaze upon our home world: Earth.
The live feed above is sent straight from the International Space Station (ISS), which travels approximately 250 miles above the Earth’s surface. This remarkable view is provided by Sen, a company dedicated to live-streaming content about Earth and space. Their high-resolution camera system, SpaceTV-1, captures stunning images of Earth’s features — from expansive forests and oceans to lively cities and isolated areas.
“You observe a magnificent planet and a world without borders,” remarked Charles Black, founder and CEO of Sen, during a conversation with Mashable.
And the most exciting part? Anyone with internet access can watch. “It’s about making space accessible to all,” Black continued.
Sen, a media collaborator with Mashable, offers around 20 hours of live content daily. The stream experiences only a few seconds of delay as it travels from the ISS to Earth through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. During short signal interruptions — which may last from less than two minutes to about 20 minutes — Sen replays the latest footage. These disruptions are typical in orbit and can occur due to events like NASA switching satellite relays or the ISS’s solar panels momentarily obstructing the signal.
“You never know what you’ll encounter,” Black stated.
The ISS orbits Earth roughly 16 times daily, and with each circuit, its trajectory slightly shifts westward. This means that every time you tune in, you are likely to observe something different. When the station crosses over the dark side of the planet, the livestream shows a countdown to dawn. It also indicates the current view location — for instance, “Tanzania.”
We have made significant progress since the initial image of Earth from space was taken by U.S. researchers in 1946. Although it was grainy, that photo represented a pivotal moment in our comprehension of the planet. By 1960, the U.S. launched its first weather satellite, TIROS-1, which transmitted over 19,000 images from orbit.
Now, you can experience Earth live, in high definition — directly from your mobile device.