In April 2025, on his 70th birthday, Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest active astronaut, returned to Earth. It was his fourth mission to the ISS, lasting 220 days. But the space veteran is also known for his astrophotography. Among his work on the aging station, he found time to take a unique photograph.
On October 20, 2024, Pettit managed to photograph a passenger plane flying hundreds of kilometers below him. At that moment, the ISS was hovering at an altitude of about 400 km, while the plane was at 12 km. The astronaut shared the photo on the Reddit aviation forum in the r/aviation thread. However, one of the moderators decided that the photo was “too blurry” and deleted it, citing quality rules.
The deletion caused an uproar among users. This prompted the senior moderator to intervene. He apologized, explaining that the new employee “still has a lot to learn.”
“The quality is pretty good, considering the distance of 400 km,” the moderator admitted, addressing Pettit. The post about this incident on r/aviation was kept, and the original photo was restored.
Network reaction
Reddit users were impressed by the photo. “Can’t believe I got flexed by someone on ISS,” wrote one. Many found the incident absurd: “What a joke. One of the most epic pics of aviation from the coolest possible place from an actual astronaut.”
This story drew attention to other works by the astronaut on Reddit. Among them are a fantastic view of Earth from the Cupola module, the Milky Way shining against the backdrop of Earth, and traces of Starlink satellites in a long exposure. The deletion story became an amusing but telling example of how unique content can be destroyed under pressure from bureaucracy, even in an open online community.
Earlier, we reported on how a 70-year-old astronaut found it difficult to adjust to Earth’s gravity.
According to futurism.com
