Challenger Center: Challenger Learning Centers From Space

Richard Garriott took these images from the International Space Station during his flight in October 2008 for Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

Each series of images follows the path of the space station over the area where a Challenger Learning Center is located. Students can look over the images, download them and study them carefully to locate areas of interest, including their local Challenger Learning Center.

It is important to know that since Richard took the images from space, North is not always towards the top of the image. You may need to rotate the image if you are comparing them to other maps. Also he took the images in a series, so each one has a slightly different perspective. He was floating over the window and may have changed his own orientation too!

What can you see in the image around your Challenger Learning Center? Can you spot parks, forests, towns, cities, bodies of water? How many miles across are the images?

The International Space Station is flying at an altitude of about 200 miles from Earth so from the window you can see vast areas of the planet. Can you tell when Richard used the zoom on his camera?

Please note: These images are very large high resolution files and will take some time to view or download. Average size of each image is 6 MB. They are perfect for printing and studying in detail. Because they are high resolution, you can print them quite large.