Minneapolis from space

We always love it when someone in the International Space Station bothers to look down and get excited to see Minneapolis-St. Paul.

It happened today.

We confer “one of us” status on astronaut Kjell Lindgren because his three-year residency in emergency medicine was at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, where he was the chief resident in 2005. Other than that, his Minnesota pedigree is a tad thin.

The orientation of the photo might be different than what you’re used to seeing. So here’s the annotated version.

mpls_iss

For the next few days, the International Space Station will be visible during early-morning passes over Minnesota.

(h/t: Paul Tosto)

Update 7:45 p.m. – Reader “David” has spotted something interesting. He writes:

After rotating the image roughly 115 degrees to the right and looking at the image right side up, I eventually focused in on North Minneapolis and wondered for a moment about the lighter shaded area.

Then I realized this was/is the path of the 2011 tornado. In your version of the picture, it starts just to the right of the bottom middle, and traveled to the left to where you marked “94” where the Camden area bridge crosses the Mississippi.

Correction: The area marked “Como” is actually Midland Hills golf course. Rosedale is just below it.