Amazing imagery for us earthlings on the ground: NASA has launched live HD streaming of earth from the international space station, 155 miles into space. The space station orbits earth once every 90 minutes and experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, video may appear black.

The cameras were made by four different companies – Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba, and are enclosed in a temperature specific housing to withstand the harsh radiation of space. Analysis of the effect of space on the video quality may help NASA engineers decide which cameras are the best types to use on future missions.

Follow the link or copy and paste: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload (The image will be dark if the signal is temporarily down or for a few minutes of night time)

For the current position of the space station, see http://iss.astroviewer.net/