Shuttle Discovery over Switzerland
<p>On July 28, 2005 while on the STS-114 mission, the United States Space Shuttle Discovery performed a "flip" manoeuver just before docking to the International Space Station (ISS). The main goal was for the astronauts aboard the ISS to take detailed pictures of the Shuttle's thermal protection system to be able to verify its integrity. At that time, the ISS and the Shuttle were 200 m apart and both moving at approximately 7.6 km/s (27'000 km/hour). This manoeuvre took place just above Switzerland at an altitude of 353 km. There was little to no cloud coverage, which allowed to take these stunning images.
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Courtesy of NASA with thanks to Claude Nicollier for forwarding the originals to the Space Center EPFL.
NASA
2005-07-28
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