8 perfect astronaut selfies for when you just need some space
Earth selfies are so two centuries ago.
If you want to impress us, you've got to take your picture from space.
Whether they're outside performing maintenance on the International Space Station during a spacewalk or hanging out inside the flight deck, astronauts prove time and time again that the selfies we take on Earth are wack.
SEE ALSO: Epic Photos from ISS Spacewalks Prove Space Makes Everything Better
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin kicked off the space selfie trend back in the day but it's continued on decades later. Nearly every astronaut that travels to orbit these days beams home at least one rad selfie.
Here are our absolute favorite space selfies sent home from the void.
Buzz Aldrin
Image: NASA
If Aldrin didn’t invent the selfie, he might as well have.
While performing a spacewalk on his Gemini 12 mission in 1966, the astronaut turned the camera back on himself and got an incredible picture of himself floating through space with Earth in the background.
Now astronauts always document their spacewalks — a tradition that Aldrin loves to remind people that he started.
Mark Vande Hei
Image: NASA
At the beginning of 2018, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei took a break from spacewalking to snap this selfie.
According to NASA, he and astronaut Scott Tingle spent 7 hours and 24 minutes outside of the station working on the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
Ricky Arnold
Image: NASA
Astronaut Ricky Arnold tweeted this photograph out from the space station on May 16, 2018 with the caption, "an amazing view of our one and only planet."
He and astronaut Drew Feustel were outside of space station working on the station's cooling system during the hours-long walk in space.
Alexander Gerst
Image: NASA/esa
European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst took this selfie during his mission to the space station in October 2014.
You can see the Earth below, parts of the station, and a speck of the bright sun in his reflective visor.
Michael Collins
Image: Nasa
NASA pilot Michael Collins took the first indoor space selfie in 1966 while on the Gemini 10 mission. Collins later went on to serve as the pilot for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
NASA used the Gemini program to test gear and train astronauts while they were orbiting Earth in order to prepare for future flights to the moon.
Scott Kelly
Image: NASA
If you know astronauts, you know that Scott Kelly has a slew of space selfies.
Before Kelly retired from NASA in 2016, he flew to space six times.
This favorite selfie was taken during his year-long mission to the space station, designed to help NASA figure out best serve people living and working in space for long spells of time.
The light you see reflecting off his face in the selfie is the glow of the Earth below.
NASA's Newest Recruits
These 12 men and women were chosen as NASA's next class of astronauts from a pool of more than 18,000 applicants — the most to ever apply.
It was only fitting, then, that NASA invite the largest group in its history to train to be future astronauts. This picture was taken while the group was at Ellington Field getting fitted for flight suits not long after they were selected in 2017.
Akihiko Hoshide
Image: NASA
Of all the selfies, this one might take the cake.
While working on the space station in 2012, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide managed to capture the sunlit world in the reflection of his visor.
And right behind him? The sun.
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