Japanese Astronaut Hails Cairo’s Mesmerizing View from Space

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata published a picture of Cairo from space, lauding the Egyptian city’s brightness from above.

“Cairo looked really bright when I flew over the city earlier today,” he wrote on Twitter.

Koichi serves as an engineer with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, a veteran of four NASA missions, a Russian Soyuz mission, and a long-term stay on the International Space Station.

He has been to space in over 11 months during his nearly two decades of spaceflight experience.

During Expedition 39, he became the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station.

Wakata flew aboard Soyuz TMA-11M / Expedition 38 / Expedition 39 on a long-duration spaceflight from 7 November 2013 to 13 May 2014.

During this spaceflight, he was accompanied by Kirobo, the first robot astronaut, who is now in space having traveled as part of the SpaceX Crew-5.