April 16, 2020. (Click the image for a high resolution view.)
Cleveland, Ohio and its sprawling suburbs extend inland from Lake Erie. This slightly angled photo was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS). The layout of the metropolitan area has evolved over time and technology. From the perspective of the ISS, different neighborhoods and suburbs have different characteristics based on the time when they were developed and planned.
During the 19th century, most Clevanders lived, worked, and walked within the narrow confines of Cleveland – what is now downtown. The arrival of trams – first horse-drawn, then electric – allowed residents to live on the outskirts while still maintaining an urban lifestyle. In the early 1900s, communities like Lakewood grew out of this tram-powered suburban revolution. The 1920s to 1940s paved the way for the next great transportation revolution and the continuation of suburban development. With cars in vogue, communities like Seven Hills developed even further from the urban core.
In this photo, suburbs with trams like Lakewood look dense and latticed, while suburbs with cars (Seven Hills) – without caring about the support of a changing population – are more expansive and thrive like dead ends.
As the city progressed, it became an air transport hub. When the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) looked for a location for a new aeronautical laboratory, Cleveland was their first choice. This lab now NASA The Glenn Research Center celebrates the 80th anniversary of its groundbreaking on January 23, 2021. Beyond the main campus, NASA established an advanced test facility at Plum Brooke Station 80 kilometers away on the edge of Lake Erie (the frame to the west). In December 2020, Plum Brooke was renamed the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility after the Ohio-born, moon-walking astronaut and former Glenn employee. This facility is now playing a crucial role in testing the Orion spacecraft, which will return to the moon in the Artemis program.
The astronaut photo ISS062-E-121292 was taken on April 16, 2020 with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 500 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit of the Johnson Space Center . The picture was taken by a member of the Expedition 62 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory, as part of the ISS National Lab, in helping astronauts capture images of the earth that are of greatest value to scientists and the general public and make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images captured by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA / JSC gateway to astronaut photography of the earth. Caption by Alex Stoken, Jacobs, JETS contract with NASA-JSC.
