Unique 'Portrait' Of Shuttle And International Space Station Released

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

WASHINGTON -- Newly-released portraits show the International Space Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

On May 23, the Soyuz was carrying Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli back to Earth. Once their vehicle was about 600 feet from the station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital, commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees. This move allowed Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.

The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan and was taken to Moscow for routine post-landing analysis. NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, then processed the imagery as part of the standard disposition of spacecraft cargo.

Additional images and high definition video are being processed and will be posted on NASA's website. To view the still images, visit http://go.nasa.gov/stationportrait.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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