NASA has released an 18-minute Ultra HD 4K video tour of the International Space Station (ISS), showing the ISS in its full high-definition glory and also revealing what life onboard ISS is like.

The Space Station Fisheye Fly-Through 4K (Ultra HD) video has been captured and produced by Harmonic company for NASA TV UHD, which is available on the AMC 18C satellite. According to Harmonic website, the firm captures ‘beautiful imagery from the space program’. The firm uses Ultra HD cameras on-board ISS to provide footage to the NASA TV UHD. The video is also available on YouTube.

The video tour takes viewers through the ISS, which has a living space equivalent to that of a five-bedroom house, from module to module. This small, metallic abode – weighing 990,000 pounds (450,000 kg) – floats in space while housing thousands of scientific instruments and crew members in microgravity.

While filming this video tour, Harmonic used “a fisheye lens for extreme focus and depth of field”, according to NASA. The video shows most of the cabins in ISS as well as a view of the Earth from inside the ISS.

The video was released on October 27 and is also available on YouTube.

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA is the space agency of United States of America and is responsible for the civilian space program and aeronautics/aerospace research. Since being established in 1958, NASA has led US in its space exploration efforts, including the Skylab space station, the Apollo moon-landing mission, and Space Shuttle. NASA also shares its data with various national and international organizations.

In the past 50 years, NASA has carried out a variety of manned and unmanned spaceflight programs. Unmanned programs included launching the first American artificial satellites into Earth orbit, sending scientific probes to different planets such as Mars and Venus, and others. Manned programs included sending the first Americans into low Earth orbit (LEO), accomplishing successful human landing on Moon in 1969 through Apollo program, and developing semi-reusable LEO Space Shuttle and space station.

Currently, NASA is working in association with Russia and European Space Agency to manage the International Space Station. The agency is also overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Commercial Crew vehicles, and the Space Launch System.