Breathtaking images of WA are among the thousands of photographs captured from space by astronaut and global celebrity Chris Hadfield.

The Canadian spaceman returned to Earth this week as a social media sensation after five months on board the International Space Station.

Each day, Commander Hadfield posted photos from different parts of the globe, including many images of Australia.

WA photos included Perth and the South West region, King George Sound near Albany, Stokes National Park west of Esperance, Baker Lake near Warburton and King Sound near Derby.

Much of his photography was tied in with special events and current affairs, including cyclone Rusty swirling off the North West coast in February, photos of the UK to commemorate the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher and extra photos of Australia on Australia Day.

Cdr Hadfield's photos were shown every day to a rapt audience of millions back on Earth by his sons, Evan and Kyle, via Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

During his stint, he used a laptop in his sleeping station to access social media and answer questions from the public - even using video to demonstrate the effect of zero gravity on everyday tasks such as wringing water out of a cloth or making a sandwich.

The signal from the ISS was relayed via satellite to a mirror site at Mission Control in Houston. The ISS travels at a velocity around 28,000km/h and an altitude around 420km, orbiting the Earth once every 92 minutes.

More than 340,000 people are now following Cdr Hadfield's Facebook account and more than 950,000 follow him on Twitter.

Cdr Hadfield, who was mission commander of Expedition 35, returned to Earth on Tuesday with fellow astronauts American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko on board a Russian Soyuz-TMA capsule, landing in Kazakhstan.

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Star is born from space station