NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared a spectacular image of Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa during the night time from space.

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While on a mission in space, the astronaut captured the world’s tallest building from the International Space Station. The striking image shows the Burj Khalifa shining like a jewel among the city lights with the dark backdrop of the night.

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“Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building from space,” Pettit wrote in an X post while sharing the breathtaking image, leaving his followers and other space enthusiasts speechless.

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Standing 828 meters high, Burj Khalifa is located in the United Arab Emirates’s Dubai. The architectural marvel was designed by a Chicago-based firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was completed in six years. The skyscraper houses various commercial, hospitality, and residential sections.

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Who is Don Pettit?

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Don Pettit or Donald R. Pettit is a NASA astronaut with a varied experience in astronomy. He worked as a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico between 1984 and 1996.

According to NASA, “He was a member of the Synthesis Group, a presidential commission lead by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Tom Stafford tasked with assembling the technology to return to the Moon and explore Mars (1990) and the Space Station Freedom Redesign Team (1993),”

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In 2003, he completed his first space flight. In 2012, he was sent to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, which was launched from Kazakhstan.

He was stationed at the International Space Station in September 2024, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The astronauts boarded the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft for their journey.

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He is currently serving as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 72 crew aboard the orbiting laboratory, where he will stay for about six months to conduct experiments and maintain the space station. He is known to frequently share similar mesmerising images from space on social media.

(With inputs from agencies)