Over the years, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have captured a top-down view of the infrastructure, landscapes, and ecosystems surrounding many of these venues.
Six of the matches were played at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, beginning on June 13 with a match-up between Qatar and Switzerland.
This stadium is located in Santa Clara, California, adjacent to San Jose and around 40 miles south of San Francisco.
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo on July 26, 2022.
The stadium, completed in 2014, is surrounded by a mix of recreational, housing, and business infrastructure.
The scene includes the southern part of San Francisco Bay, which is 23 years into a50-year effortto restore up to 90 percent of the region’s salt ponds to tidal wetlands and marshlands, while retaining some of its salt-making heritage.
The Bay Area hosted its sixth and final World Cup match on July 1, when the U.S. faced off against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a knockout match.
The U.S. advanced to the round of 16 following a2-0 win.
TheFIFA World Cup finalis scheduled for July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium, part of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The stadium sits along the New Jersey Turnpike, west of Midtown Manhattan.
Note that north is toward the bottom-right of this photo, captured by an astronaut on April 17, 2022.
The area has seencenturies of human impact.
Colonists cleared wetlands and cedar forest for settlements, and development for a range of economic and industrial uses followed.
In the 20th century, it became an unregulated dumping ground.
In recent decades, though, wetland restoration efforts have occurred alongside the development of the sports and entertainment complex.
Other World Cup host cities have also appeared in astronaut photography and satellite imagery.
Guadalajara Stadium, Los Angeles Stadium, Houston Stadium, andBC Place Vancouver are among the venues that have been observed from above.
Astronaut photographISS067-E-202213was acquired on July 26, 2022, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters, and astronaut photographISS067-E-18580was acquired on April 17, 2022, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1150 millimeters.
They are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center.
The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 67crew.
The images have been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed.
TheInternational Space Station Programsupports the laboratory as part of theISS National Labto help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.
Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSCGateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.
Story by Kathryn Hansen.
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NASANASA Data Helps CDC Track Air Quality During World Cup 2026. Accessed July 6, 2026.
NASA Earth ObservatoryWorld Cup Fever in Guadalajara. Accessed July 6, 2026.
NASA Earth ObservatoryNew York and New Jersey. Accessed July 6, 2026.
NASA Earth ObservatoryFrom Salt Production to Salt Marsh. Accessed July 6, 2026.
New Jersey Sports and Exposition AuthorityHistory. Accessed July 6, 2026.
U.S. Geological SurveyMonitoring Nesting Waterbirds for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project: 2022 Breeding Season. Accessed July 6, 2026.
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