Stunning time lapse footage from orbit with the Space Shuttles Discovery and Atlantis foregrounding a magnificent view. Via the NasaExplorer channel.
Segment 1: NASA’s Shuttle Discovery (STS131), while docked to the ISS, captured these images on April 12, 2010 as it moved from the night side of the Earth to the daytime. In the process the Aurora Borealis can be seen on the Earth’s limb. A solar panel from the ISS and a docked Soyuz module can be seen in the foreground.
Segment 2: NASA’s Shuttle Discovery (STS131), while docked to the ISS, captured these images on April 16, 2010. The sequence begins as the Shuttle emerges from darkness over the Canadian Rockies, traversing the United States southeast towards Florida. The Bahamas and Hispaniola are seen as the Shuttle continues over Venzuela, Brazil and finally the southern Atlantic ocean before returning to darkness.
Images courtesy of the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
Segment 3: The Sun rises behind space shuttle Atlantis in this time-lapse sequence from July 19, 2011, one of the last days of the historic final mission of the shuttle program.
And here are the final moments of the final flight of the Nasa Space Shuttle program. Via the NasaKennedy channel.
Adds And, via the Guardian’s Adam Rutherford, here’s a great Nature video tribute – Space Shuttles united.