---

I would love to be up there right now on the Colbert Treadmill looking up at the stars (or down at the earth) through the gorgeous new observation window.

ISS “Bay Window” Now Open On World.

Let There Be Light

Endeavour pilot Terry Virts opened the windows of the newly installed cupola one at a time early Wednesday, giving spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick an early look into the International Space Station’s room with a view that they had helped install.

The cupola’s fully opened windows look down on the Sahara Desert in this image that was ‘tweeted’ from space by JAXA astronaut and Expedition 22 flight engineer Soichi Noguchi.

Image Credit: NASA

This image is the first taken through a first of its kind “bay window,” a 7-pane cupola, on the International Space Station. Viewed is the Sahara Desert.