NASA

To Infinity and Beyond: Astronaut's Family Photo Exchange From Space

A photo exchange from outer space that kept NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio up to date with his family back on Earth touched even more lives when it was shared on Facebook.

One keepsake Mastracchio, 54, packed for his six-month stay aboard the International Space Station was a photograph of his son David and daughter-in-law Christin, during her B-52 pilot training. Mastracchio photographed the couple’s picture from the ISS and David posted it to his Facebook page.

When Christin became an Air Force pilot, she and David took another photo from the B-52 cockpit, this time holding the photo that Mastracchio took from space. They emailed the new picture to Mastracchio, who once again snapped a photo that was posted to Facebook.

“Well, this is probably as far as it will get... A picture of a picture of a picture of a picture... in space,” David Mastracchio captioned the post.

 
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Mastracchio returned to Earth in May, but the photo loop is still in the internet’s viral orbit, according to NBC News.

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Additional photos Mastracchio took from space garnered social media attention as well. In April he posted a selfie to Twitter with the Earth in the background after he replaced a failed backup computer box on the ISS. The photo got retweeted over 5,000 times.

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