Astronauts Leave Cameras Behind in Space

While most of us would do almost anything for a good high-end DSLR, NASA astronauts are used to leaving behind camera equipment in space. The last Endeavor crew and specifically, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli carried some camera equipment up to space to shoot photographs. He was carrying a Nikon D3s and a D2Xs full-frame sensor camera with a 24-120mm lens. The value of the equipment taken to space was roughly $8,000. 

The D3x isn't exactly a cheap camera.

After clicking several photos in the ISS, he returned back to earth in a Soyuz spacecraft. But before he did that, he dumped the cameras into a capsule that detaches itself from the spacecraft before re-entry. The constituents of the capsule are all disintegrated during re-entry. The memory cards were carried with the astronauts on their way back to earth. There’s a cargo checking process that is done by Russian authorities before the astronaut can take the memory cards back with him. Paolo Nespoli is said to have clicked photos from a distance of 200m from the international space station. He was also said to be carrying a Fujifilm FinePix 3D W1 camera with him.

Source: MSNBC