On September 11, 2001, medical officer Frank Culbertson was orbiting in the International Space Station when he and two Russian crewmates learned about the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City.
Culbertson grabbed a video camera and recorded the smoke plume from the Twin Towers before they collapsed, killing nearly 3,000 people that afternoon.
As reported on nasa.gov:
"For the Expedition 3 crew aboard the space station, like millions of Americans back on Earth, September 11 began as an ordinary day, their 33rd in space. Following a morning of physical exams, Culbertson, who served as the crew's medical officer, began a private medical conference with NASA Flight Surgeon Stephen F. Hart to relay to him the results of the tests. 'Frank, we're not having a very good day down here on Earth.' Dr. Hart went on to explain how two commercial airliners had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third into the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. As they were tallking, they received word that a fourth airliner had crashed somewhere in Pennsylvania. At first stunned into disbelief by the news, Culbertson quickly realized that the space station, then over central Canada, was about to make a southeasterly pass over Maine, within viewing distance of New York. Culbertson grabbed a video camera and headed for the window facing in the proper direction. A few minutes later, he saw and videotaped a large plume of smoke stretching for dozens of miles from the lower Manhattan site of the World Trade Center. After a few minutes, the space station moved out of range of New York, and the three crewmembers had 90 minutes before its orbit brought it back again over the area. They set up several still and video cameras to record the events as they were still unfolding, unknowingly witnessing the collapse of the second tower as a bloom of smoke."
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