20 years on from 9/11: How a NASA astronaut witnessed the dastardly attacks from space

The attacks of September 11, 2001, were an American national tragedy triggered by the terror outfit al-Qaeda, which resulted in the loss of lives of thousands of people and changed the American culture forever.

Interestingly, at the time when the 9/11 attack took place, NASA had a crew in outer space, which began to monitor the event as soon as they were informed about the incident. Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson was stationed at the International Space Station and was the only American on the crew.

The story of Astronaut Frank Culbertson

As Commander Frank Culbertson was at the International Space Station when he was informed about the attacks, he began to closely observe the terror attack by capturing photographs. Luckily, the station was hovering over the Manhattan area, thus it made the process a bit easier. He captured many images during the attack and saw the world change within minutes in front of him.

Astronaut Frank Culbertson (in the middle) and his crew

NASA released a video on their YouTube channel back in 2013 where they first revealed that the International Space Station had documented the terror attack. The video is also an emotional tribute to the lives lost during the 9/11 attacks and talks about how NASA collaborated with the American Government and military for other high-profile missions like infiltrating Afghanistan. Station Astronaut Frank Culbertson again talks about his observations and the breath-taking images he clicked from the ISS of the 9/11 attacks.

Later, he talked regarding the images he clicked, "The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible!”

He further said that before he was informed about the attack, he looked at the debris and saw a big cloud of dust and smoke across the Manhattan Area. He said that after seeing the aftermath of the attack, it was too painful for him because it was like a “wound in the side of your country, of your family or of your friends.”'

The 9/11 attacks as seen from the space

NASA wanted to pay a proper tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attack and did exactly on the tenth anniversary of the attack by taking an American flag on metal recovered from the site of the World Trade Centre towers and placing it on the surface of the planet Mars. The flag was recovered shortly after the destruction of the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, and it was taken to Mars on Sept. 11, 2011.

NASA later said, “NASA wanted to come up with an appropriate tribute to the people who lost their lives in the tragic events of September 11. America's space program has a long history of carrying items into space to commemorate historic events, acts of courage and dramatic achievements.”