Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together

NASA ^ | August 31, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: How was this picture taken? Usually, pictures of the shuttle, taken from space, are snapped from the space station. Commonly, pictures of the space station are snapped from the shuttle. How, then, can there be a picture of both the shuttle and the station together, taken from space? The answer is that during the Space Shuttle Endeavour's last trip to the International Space Station in 2011 May, a supply ship departed the station with astronauts that captured a series of rare views. The supply ship was the Russian Soyuz TMA-20 which landed in Kazakhstan later that day. The above spectacular image well captures the relative sizes of the station and docked shuttle. Far below, clouds of Earth are seen above a blue sea.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[rktman]

What once was and will never be again.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Come now, some day our space program will be used for space again instead of Muslim outreach.

[GeronL]

hopefully

I am betting on at least 3 private companies getting there first though

[ansel12]

Those people are living lives that are a little different from most of us.

[SunkenCiv]

We’ve missed it this go-round, but it will be back, in a different form.

[Kirkwood]

The shuttle arm appears to be positioned for tile inspection.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Where’s Sandra Bullock and George Clooney ?

[Veggie Todd]

I'm not buying the story of a supply ship taking this photo. It's a fake rigged up by Hollywood to make it look like we've really been to space.

If you enlarge the photo and look closely, you can clearly see this is a model you can buy in any hobby shop.

[SunkenCiv]

Ew, now I won’t be able to sleep.

[SunkenCiv]

Could have been in the standard storage position, after moving whatever was delivered by the STS.

[SunkenCiv]

Look close, you can see the Testors logo.

http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1408/shuttleiss_nasa_6048.jpg

[Oztrich Boy]

[Kirkwood]

Standard stowage position is not wrapped halfway around the shuttle with the camera pointed at the tiles.

[Mmogamer]

It’s bull&**() we are reduced to no space program.
o

[SunkenCiv]

That *is* the most plausible explanation.

[EQAndyBuzz]

See the front of the shuttle, where it looks like there is a dot in a circle?

The shuttle is from Target.

[Ken522]

You’ve got a sharp eye, Andy - and we can’t see the wires holding this thing up because they’re painted black ....

[Vinnie]

Ping