Those who have spent time on the International Space Station, the orbiting laboratory 240 miles above the Earth, have become some of Instagram’s biggest celebrities, populating their social media feeds with stunning photos of Earth. Now those images come together in a new IMAX, 3-D film shot by the astronauts on the station. Narrated by Jennifer Lawrence, “A Beautiful Planet,” a paean to exploration, wonder and the blue-green beauty of the Earth, opens Friday, giving viewers the closet view of Earth from space they could get without strapping into a rocket.

In the 55 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go to space, only about 550 people have done it. But director Toni Myers set out to change that in her 45-minute long documentary, casting her lens from the space station down to capture footage of Earth. If the “blue marble,” is the documentary’s star, the astronauts aboard the station are the support cast -- and the ones tasked with doing the actual filming.

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“I hope that it gives audiences an opportunity to experience what we experience,” said Kjell Lindgren, one of the NASA astronauts featured in the film.

He said he spent as much time as he could “earth gazing” from the station’s multi-window cupola. But after spending a few days in space, he could start to tell where the station was flying based on the color of the reflections coming through the window. Over Africa, the light was “tan and deep brown,” he said. Over Australia, in addition to the browns “there were amazing reds and oranges.”

One of his most memorable moments was, he said, coming over the Rocky Mountains, and seeing Colorado Springs, home to the Air Force Academy, his alma mater. Then in the distance, he could see the Gulf of Mexico, and Houston, where he lives now. As he flew past at 17,500 mph he thought of his wife and children, tried to “pick out the neighborhood where my house is and image what they were doing.”

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Despite whizzing over the surface of the Earth, he said he still felt a strong connection to the planet, which is, ultimately, the point of the film. The space station becomes a metaphor for the Earth itself, which is cast as its own spacecraft, circling through the darkness of space on its won. And while the film does an extraordinary job of capturing the majesty and magnificence of Earth, there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself.

That has become the goal of a few commercial space companies--Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin--which hope to soon fly tourists past the edge of space, where they'd be able to experience weightlessness for a few minutes and see the curvature of the Earth.

One of the first to experience the “overview effect” was Ed White, the Gemini 4 astronaut who in 1965 became the first American to perform a space walk. Floating in space, while passing over his hometown of Houston, then California, he was supposed to stay out for about 12 minutes. Instead, he stayed outside for twice that long, giddy and agog, 103 miles high, until commander James McDivitt called him in like a mother summoning children at dinnertime.

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“They want you to get back in now,” McDivitt said.

“I’m not coming in,” White said. “This is fun.”

“Ed, come on in here,” McDivitt finally said said. “Come on. Let’s get back in here before it gets dark.”

“I’m coming back in . . . and it’s the saddest moment of my life.”