Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a photograph taken from the International Space Station (ISS) continues to serve as a haunting visual record of the event. Captured by NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, the image depicts a massive plume of smoke drifting across New York City following the strikes on the World Trade Center.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four commercial airliners. Two were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, killing those on board and many inside the buildings. The impacts, which occurred approximately 17 minutes apart, ultimately led to the collapse of both 110-story skyscrapers. A third plane struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while a fourth, likely targeted at Washington, D.C., went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back against the hijackers. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people, according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
Culbertson, who was serving as commander of the ISS and was the only American not on Earth at the time of the attacks, passed over New York City shortly after learning of the events. From an altitude of roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers), he documented the thick smoke column rising from Manhattan. Close inspection of the image reveals what Culbertson described as an “odd bloom” around the base of the smoke. He noted that this detail suggests the photo was likely taken around the time of, or shortly after, the second tower collapsed.
In letters written in the days following the attacks, Culbertson reflected on the emotional impact of viewing the disaster from space. “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point,” he wrote on Sept. 13. “The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche.”
I never realized Culbertson was the only American in space during the attacks. The isolation must have been intense.
That ‘odd bloom’ detail is chilling. It really grounds the distance between the ISS and the tragedy below.