Out-of-this-world photos of the International Space Station, which Russia pledges to leave in 2024.

Extract from ABC News 

ABC News Homepage

By Lara Smit

Posted 18 hours ago

The sun beams off the Coral Sea, north-east of Australia, as the International Space Station orbits 425 kilometres above.(Supplied: NASA)

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These out-of-this-world scenes from the International Space Station (ISS), which Russia says it will leave in 2024, show how breathtaking Earth looks from afar and what life is like on an orbiting laboratory.

Almost 30 years ago then-US vice-president Al Gore and Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced plans to build a new space station.

This would eventually become the ISS, kicking off decades of otherworldly collaboration between two nations with a history of divide. 

Since 2000, the ISS has always been manned. 

Here, US, Russian and Italian crew members demonstrate the weightlessness aboard.

Cargo crafts supply the station with fresh fruit and other provisions.(Supplied: NASA)

This resupply ship from Russian Space Agency Roscosmos can carry different types of cargo including hardware, research investigations, supplies and provisions.

The Russian resupply spacecraft is pictured 418 kilometres above the Pacific Ocean.(Supplied: NASA)

Breathtaking pictures show sunrays bursting above Earth's horizon as the ISS floats 425 kilometres above Western Australia, off the coast of Shark Bay.

It takes sunlight about eight minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.(Supplied: NASA)

While the space station orbits the Earth and floats north of Antarctica, it comes across famous natural phenomena like the northern lights, Aurora Borealis.

The northern lights are most frequently seen in countries in the polar north, like Canada, Norway, Greenland and Finnish Lapland.(Supplied: NASA)

German astronaut Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency (ESA) is pictured installing thermal gear and electronic components on the orbiting lab.

The space suits protect astronauts from extreme temperatures and supply them with oxygen while they are outside the station.(Supplied: NASA)

Astonishing images above South Australia show a docking module from space agency Roscosmos which is attached to a multipurpose laboratory module. 

The waters pictured are the Great Australian Bight, Spencer Gulf and St Vincent Gulf.(Supplied: NASA)

NASA has even managed to grow chillies inside the space station in a botany experiment they call Plant Habitat-04.

The plant broke a record for feeding the largest number of astronauts from a crop grown in space.(Supplied: NASA)

The ISS floated above the south Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand, when this photograph was taken from a window.

The image was taken from a seven-windowed cupola on the ISS.(Supplied: NASA)

Russia has announced that it is planning to build its own orbital station.