Chris Williams

Can you spot the astronauts? 👩‍🚀👨‍🚀 The original solar arrays on the International Space Station have a 240 foot wingspan, towering over the crew at the base.

.@Astro_Jessica and @Astro_ChrisW concluded a seven-hour, two-minute spacewalk today at 3:54pm ET. The duo is back inside the space station following the installation of a solar array modification kit to the port side of the orbital complex. nasa.gov/blogs/spacesta…

LIVE: Tune in to watch @Astro_ChrisW and @Astro_Jessica go for a spacewalk! Our astronauts are scheduled to step outside the @Space_Station at about 8am ET (1200 UTC) and work for about six-and-a-half hours. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Join us here on March 18 to watch @Astro_Jessica and @Astro_ChrisW go on a spacewalk! It'll be Williams' first and Meir's fourth. The duo will make preparations to install solar arrays.

The well-lit nighttime cityscape of India pictured from the International Space Station as it soared over the Arabian Sea and across the Himalayas.

Many astronauts experience changes to their vision and/or changes to the structure of the eye during long duration space missions, a condition that has become known as Spaceflight Associate Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS). It's important that we characterize and understand these changes so that we can ensure the health of astronauts while in space and after their return. Here we are obtaining images of the back of @Astro_ChrisW's eyes using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). I’m assisting as the operator.

Happy Year of the Horse! I was fortunate to be looking out of the Cupola while we were passing over Beijing, and saw the twinkling of fireworks celebrating the Lunar New Year!

The weather and orbital mechanics cooperated, giving us a great @Space_Station pass over @NASAKennedy for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal! I got a long lens (1600mm) set up in the WORF (Window Observational Research Facility) window in the lab and got a few nice shots of SLS (Space Launch System) on the pad as it is getting ready for the test. It has also been a beautiful full Moon (this shot from the Cupola yesterday). Go Artemis II!

One question we often get asked is if we can see major storms from space, such as the one that blanketed much of the country in snow last week. Yes! We can see them, but from above, storms like that look just like a large area covered in clouds (although some storms, like hurricanes, have structure you can see). We can definitely see the results – we had a pass up the East Coast a few days later, and I was able to get pictures of a few cities blanketed in snow. Can you identify them?

Last week, we were treated to the most incredible aurora borealis I have ever seen. There was a major coronal mass ejection from the Sun, and as those particles reach Earth, they interact with our magnetic field and our upper atmosphere to create the green, red, and blue/purple hues that we see. I spent most of the evening just staring out of the Cupola windows – it was as if we were surrounded by a glowing fog of red. I tried to capture it in a timelapse video. @KudSverchkov also got a great picture of me as we were all enjoying the light show!

Last week, I spent large parts of two days working on scientific experiments in the Life Sciences Glovebox! I was working on the Germicidal Ultraviolet Light Biofilm Inhibition (GULBI) experiment, which investigates how microgravity impacts the ability of UV light to prevent the formation of biofilms. My background is as a physicist, but as astronauts, we act as the eyes and hands of investigators on the ground in all different disciplines. It is fun to get a chance to participate in some biology research! Photo credit @KudSverchkov

Timelapse was taken on 12/28/2025!

The view out of the @Space_Station window can be stunning. This timelapse video captures the Aurora Borealis from the port window of the ISS cupola window as we orbit over the Northern US and Canada. You can also see the Moon set behind the station solar panels and even a shooting star! The shimmering ribbons of green and red light are caused by oxygen in the upper atmosphere that has been ionized and excited by solar activity. Nikon Z9, 28mm, f/1.4, ¼ sec exposures, 1 second interval

The @Space_Station orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes. As it is orbiting, it is also rotating so that we keep our same orientation relative to the Earth’s surface, which causes the stars to move across the sky from our perspective. This can lead to an interesting star trail effect! This image is a 5-minute exposure from a port-facing window, showing how the stars are streaked into a ~20 degree arc centered on our axis of rotation. Z9/14mm

With the departure of Crew-11 last week, I am now the only @NASA astronaut on the @Space_Station. However, I am far from the only person working to support the mission of this amazing laboratory. In addition to the crew, there are mission control centers around the world who work 24/7 to keep the systems and payloads on the station running. It is an absolute pleasure to work with these fantastic ground teams every day. Some days we even have time for a little fun – this weekend after I finished my housekeeping duties we played an intercontinental game of “Battleship” with our flight control teams in Houston, Huntsville, Munich and Tsukuba, organized by our Flight Director.

I took this photo of @NASAKennedy this weekend. It is not my best photo (should have grabbed a different lens) but it is special – if you zoom in on the rightmost launch pad, you can see a shadow just to the left of the center of the pad. That shadow is from the rocket (and launch tower) that will soon take four of my friends on a trip around the moon as part of the @NASAArtemis program! This weekend was the rollout of the rocket, and we passed over Florida just as it was arriving to the pad.

A couple of days ago, I said goodbye to my Crew-11 crewmates as they entered their Crew Dragon capsule. Thursday morning, I made my way to the Cupola and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a glimpse of their re-entry, but I was able to watch their recovery over breakfast. It was an absolute privilege spending the last couple of months with @zenanaut, @AstroIronMike and @Astro_kimiya and Oleg, and I enjoyed every day of our time up here together. Go Crew 11!

New Years fireworks in Baku, Azerbaijan. I was practicing some night time photographs from one of the windows on the @Space_Station at the end of the work day on New Years Eve. I had just finished passing over my targets when I noticed something funny – the city below me was twinkling! I quickly took a video, and realized that as we were orbiting further east, we had orbited into 2026, and I was actually seeing the New Years fireworks over Baku, Azerbaijan! Nikon Z9/400mm lens.

Happy New Year from the International @Space_Station! It has been an eventful month. Our crew launched on Thanksgiving day and joined the crew of Expedition 73. On December 9th, Soyuz MS-27 undocked and brought @JonnyKimUSA and his crewmates home, and Expedition 74 on the ISS officially began. Over the past month, I’ve been settling in on station and getting used to the pace of life and work. We had a great final part of 2025, and I’m looking forward to what 2026 brings!

LIVE: Watch as the Soyuz spacecraft hatch opens around 10:10am ET (1510 UTC) and the @Space_Station crew welcomes @Astro_ChrisW and his crewmates. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…