"We catch a glimpse of a huge swirl of clouds out the window over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or the boot of Italy jutting down into the Mediterranean, or the brilliant blue coral reefs of the Caribbean strutting their beauty before the stars. And...we experienced those uniquely human qualities: awe, curiosity, wonder, joy, amazement." (Russell L. Schweickart, Apollo Astronaut ("The Home Planet")
Space Station Orbit TutorialCynthia A. Evans and Julie A. Robinson, Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA Johnson Space CenterFACT 3: There is an approximate repeat of orbit tracks over the same area on the ground every 3 days. Again, the ISS altitude will determine how closely the tracks repeat.
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Figure 4. Repeat of orbits every 3 days. Orbits for Day 1 are shown in yellow, day 2 in green, and day 3 in aqua. The first
four repeating orbits of the 4th day are shown in red.
