Good bye, shuttle.

A few days ago, the orbiter Atlantis took off. That's the 135th, and very last, mission for the american space shuttles..
Chris Bray was on the site of the launch of the first shuttle in 1981 (Columbia), and again for the last one ; hence this picture, took 30 years apart...

That's the end of an era, which takes its origins in the Cold War. Remains the feeling that with the disparition of this tool, the future of Man in space seems farther than ever.
What will we dream about after ISS is closed in 2020?...

Speaking of which, here's a pic I kept since Januray.
Shot by Thierry Legault (go check his website, unbelievable pics/vids!), who calculated than during the last solar eclipse, the sun, the moon and ISS would be aligned... for 0.86 seconds. And that would only be observale from the Sultanate of Oman. I reckon that guy didn't ditch the Math class.
So, he went there, and actually got the picture (click on it to see it full res) : bottom left is the Moon, 400.000km from us ; ISS orbiting at 500km ; and the Sun in the background, at 150 millions km.
Just for fun, the black dot bottom right is a solar eruption... the size of the Earth.

I leave you with a few links : a brilliant video, some 360° panoramic views, and a great galery of night sky pics...

Ni-night, everyone... Good-bye, shuttle.