The deadly beauty of superstorm Milton seen from the International Space Station

The once-in-a-century superstorm Milton is currently raging across the state of Florida, posing the risk of catastrophic natural disasters over a large area. Experts say this category 5 superstorm with winds of up to 257 km/h could cause sea levels to rise, submerging many coastal areas of Florida, with estimated damage of up to hundreds of billions of dollars.

With its high level of danger and potential for terrible destruction, Milton's every move is being closely monitored not only from ground-based meteorological stations but also from space, especially the International Space Station (ISS).

This particular storm is being photographed from space by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, who has been watching the storm evolve over the past few days, from its early formation to its rapid growth into a super typhoon in just over 24 hours. Matthew Dominick also captured a series of stunning images of Milton from the window of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft he flew to the ISS on the Crew-8 mission.

Crew-8 astronauts were scheduled to depart from the ISS and return to Earth this week, but the schedule has been delayed due to extreme weather in Florida.

The image, taken on October 9, shows the space station flying over Hurricane Milton, as well as the massive size of the hurricane just before it made landfall.

In addition to the images posted by Dominick, NASA also shared more images from the space station that show more details about the storm.

Due to the threat of the storm, NASA has canceled the launch of the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which was scheduled for October 10. The launch was scheduled to take place from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but will likely be delayed for some time to allow for damage from Milton.

Milton is likely to be one of the most destructive storms on record in western and central Florida. More than 10 coastal Florida counties have issued mandatory evacuation orders. Pinellas County has ordered more than 500,000 people to evacuate, while Lee County estimates 416,000 people live in mandatory evacuation zones. Mobile homes, nursing homes and other medical facilities are also under evacuation orders.