• Astronauts take hundreds of stunning photos from the International Space Station.
• This year's best snapshots reveal both Earth and space in glorious detail.
• Check out astronauts' views of eclipses, northern lights, storms, and Earth's grandest landscapes.

Every year, the International Space Station produces some of the world's best photography.

Astronauts tend to be technically skilled with a camera, yes. Many of them are engineers, after all.

Their real photography advantage, though, is the glorious view from space as they circle our planet every 90 minutes.

From blue comets and pink northern lights to snowy volcanos and winding rivers, the view 250 miles above Earth does not disappoint.

Here are the best photos of 2024 from the space station.

You simply can't beat the views from the International Space Station.

So astronauts take hundreds of photos each year.

"How would you not want to take pictures and try and share that with the rest of humanity?" NASA astronaut Matt Dominick told ABC News Radio in August.

This year brought a special treat: the bold, bright Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, or Comet A3.

Of course, astronauts also get front-row seats to the northern lights, aka the aurora borealis.

In April, they watched the shadow of the moon creep across the US during the total solar eclipse.

Earth's atmosphere offers other unique spectacles, such as colorful sunsets and sunrises.

This eerie sheen is noctilucent clouds — extremely rare ice-crystal formations much higher in the atmosphere than any other cloud.

Even these gorgeous photos don't do the real views justice, according to Dominick.

"I've spent a fair amount of time trying to capture what I can see with my eye. I've not been able to achieve it yet," he said.

Not all the views are fun or comforting. Astronauts can see wildfires clearly.

Every year they get a bird's-eye view of hurricanes, too.

Stretching hundreds of miles wide, major storms like Hurricanes Helene and Milton seem to swallow the world below.

Astronauts can even see lightning blaring through the clouds.

One thing they can't often see is borders — like in this spot where Libya, Sudan, and Egypt meet in the Sahara desert.

Astronauts have long described a profound shift in perspective when they first see Earth from above. It's called the "Overview Effect."

They talk about overwhelming feelings of awe, unity, and a sense of Earth's fragility.

The actor William Shatner described it after his 2021 spaceflight with Jeff Bezos: "There's the blue down there and the black up there. There is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is — is there death? I don't know."

"It really is difficult for me to imagine people on Earth not getting along together," NASA astronaut Suni Williams told reporters in September. "It just changes your perspective."

Williams and her crewmate, Butch Wilmore, have been stuck on the space station for months.

They were the first people to fly on Boeing's Starliner spaceship for a roughly week-long flight in July.

Starliner returned to Earth without them after engine issues made NASA officials concerned about its safety.

Now, Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship in March.

They've taken the setback in stride. "This is my happy place. I love being up here in space," Williams said.

The space station's days are numbered, though. It will reach the end of its operational life in 2030.

NASA has asked SpaceX to design a vehicle to push the ISS out of orbit, to a fiery plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

The ISS will have a "big legacy," Dominick said: "Look what humanity can do when they come together and work together."

• Two astronauts have been stuck on the space station after their Boeing spaceship had engine issues.
• Now, their return is being delayed another month to give SpaceX time to process a new spaceship.
• NASA and SpaceX are using the new ship, instead of a refurbished one, to expand SpaceX's fleet.

Two astronauts have been stuck on the International Space Station for months because of issues with Boeing's new Starliner spaceship.

Now, they'll have to stay just a bit longer because SpaceX needs extra time to prepare its Crew Dragon spaceship.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were set to finally come back to Earth in February. Now the earliest they can return is in late March, NASA announced in a blog post on Wednesday.

While one month is not a terribly long delay by regular NASA mission standards, the extra time in orbit is significant considering Wilmore and Williams launched into space for a roughly eight-day mission way back in June.

SpaceX needs extra time to process a new spaceship

SpaceX's Crew-10 mission, originally scheduled for February, is supposed to relieve Wilmore and Williams and allow them to finally return home.

NASA and SpaceX recently decided, though, to use a new Dragon spaceship rather than a used, refurbished one for that launch, according to NASA's blog post.

The new spaceship will need extra time after it ships to SpaceX's processing facility in Florida in January. That's why NASA pushed back the launch date.

"Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail," Steve Stich, the manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement.

This was "the best option for meeting NASA's requirements and achieving space station objectives for 2025," the blog post said.

SpaceX has reused Dragon spaceships for NASA missions in the past. However, a NASA spokesperson told BI that certifying the new spacecraft will expand the company's Crew Dragon fleet to five human-rated spaceships, for both NASA and private missions.

In a statement sent in an email, the spokesperson said that Wilmore, Williams, and their crewmate Nick Hague were "supportive of the path forward."

They added that the three astronauts "understood the possibilities and unknowns, including being aboard station longer than planned."

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX to the rescue

The question of how Wilmore and Williams would get back to Earth arose soon after their launch.

As their newly-minted Boeing Starliner ship approached the ISS in early June, it experienced engine issues that raised NASA officials' eyebrows.

After weeks of testing and deliberating, NASA decided to send the Starliner back to Earth empty. Officials weren't confident enough that it was safe.

Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams stayed on the space station. NASA reassigned them to its next mission with SpaceX, called Crew-9. They would have a ride home on that spaceship. Two other astronauts gave up their SpaceX seats to make room for the Boeing duo.

The catch was that Wilmore and Williams would have to serve the same six-month shift as the rest of Crew-9. They've been conducting experiments and maintenance on the ISS just like everyone else, with the promise of coming home in February.

Now, they'll have to wait another month.

"We appreciate the hard work by the SpaceX team to expand the Dragon fleet in support of our missions," Stich said in the Wednesday statement, adding his appreciation for "the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews."

• The billionaire Jared Isaacman said his Polaris missions with SpaceX are "a question mark" now.
• Donald Trump nominated Isaacman for NASA Administrator months after he did SpaceX's first spacewalk.
• Space experts doubt Isaacman will fly during his NASA term, due to job demands and safety risks.

SpaceX and its go-to billionaire-turned-private-astronaut seem to be going their separate ways, at least for the next four years.

Jared Isaacman has flown two SpaceX missions to space and is slated to fly two more.

However, Isaacman may no longer fly those missions now that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped him to lead NASA.

Isaacman is the founder and CEO of a payments-processing company called Shift4, but he's more famous for conducting the world's first commercial spacewalk in September.

The spacewalk was the main feature of the first mission of the Polaris Program, which Isaacman started in partnership with SpaceX to supercharge the company's human-spaceflight capabilities as it aims for the moon and Mars.

The program is scheduled to fly two future missions, including the first human flight aboard SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket.

Isaacman has previously indicated that he would be on board that flight. It would be a crucial step in Elon Musk's plans to establish a human settlement on Mars using Starship.

The NASA nomination throws that mission into uncertainty, Isaacman acknowledged on Wednesday.

"The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment. It may wind up on hold for a moment," Isaacman said at the Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando, according to Reuters.

Indeed, shortly after his nomination, experts told Business Insider that it was unlikely Isaacman would fly to space during his term as NASA Administrator.

"Well, it certainly has never happened before," John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told BI.

That doesn't mean it can't happen, but Logsdon added, "NASA Administrator is a full-time, high-level government job. Taking time off to train for and carry out another spaceflight seems to me to be a little implausible."

If Isaacman wanted to fly a SpaceX mission during his NASA term, "that would take some thought on his part and the rest of the team," George Nield, a former head of the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, told BI. "What's the risk, what's the benefit, what happens if there's a bad day, and are there succession plans?"

Nield co-authored a 2020 analysis which calculated that US spaceflight has a 1% fatal failure rate, because four out of nearly 400 spaceflights have ended in deadly malfunctions. That's a rate 10,000 times greater than commercial airliners.

The US Senate has to confirm Isaacman's nomination before he can take office.

"Having the boss of the enterprise take the risk of spaceflight would be unusual, but we live in unusual times," Logsdon said.