An American astronaut who was orbiting the globe in the International Space Station during the attacks on the World Trade Centre described the unique vantage point on the attacks.
Retired US Navy captain and NASA Expedition 3 commander Frank Culbertson had taken a photo of smoke billowing above New York City, the Business Insider reports
In a NASA video on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, he said: “I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan.”
Culbertson, along with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin, saw attack on the World Trade Centre from space.
"It's horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such wilful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are," Culberston wrote.
Culbertson wrote a letter reflecting about his day in space on 9/11. The letter reads:
I had just finished a number of tasks this morning, the most time-consuming being the physical exams of all crew members. In a private conversation following that, the flight surgeon told me they were having a very bad day on the ground. I had no idea ...
He described the situation to me as best he knew it at ~0900 CDT. I was flabbergasted, then horrified. My first thought was that this wasn't a real conversation, that I was still listening to one of my Tom Clancy tapes. It just didn't seem possible on this scale in our country. I couldn't even imagine the particulars, even before the news of further destruction began coming in.
Vladimir came over pretty quickly, sensing that something very serious was being discussed. I waved Michael into the module as well. They were also amazed and stunned. After we signed off, I tried to explain to Vladimir and Michael as best I could the potential magnitude of this act of terror in down-town Manhattan and at the Pentagon. They clearly understood and were very sympathetic.
I glanced at the World Map on the computer to see where over the world we were and noticed that we were coming south-east out of Canada and would be passing over New England in a few minutes. I zipped around the station until I found a window that would give me a view of NYC and grabbed the nearest camera. It happened to be having a video camera, and I was looking south from the window of Michael's cabin.
The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible.
Over the next few days and still from his outpost in space, Culbertson slowly started to receive more information of what happened on Sept 11. Revealing a sense of helplessness and isolation, Culbertson describes the moment he found out his friend and pilot Chic Burlingame perished on the hijacked American Airlines flight 77 that hit the Pentagon.
"I met Chic during plebe summer when we were in the D&B together, and we had lots of classes together. I can't imagine what he must have gone through, and now I hear that he may have risen further than we can even think of by possibly preventing his plane from being the one to attack the White House. What a terrible loss, but I'm sure Chic was fighting bravely to the end. And tears don't flow the same in space," Culbertson wrote.
NASA's space shuttle Endeavour launched 6,000 American flags in honour of the families of 9/11 victims two months later. The same mission also flew flags recovered from the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, and from the crash site in Pennsylvania.
