Gorgeous, isn’t it? This is one of dozens of photos from the recent shuttle mission released this week by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which explains:

This image of the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour, flying at an altitude of approximately 220 miles, was taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on May 24, 2011. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the International Space Station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Coleman and Nespoli were both flight engineers. The three landed in Kazakhstan later that day, completing 159 days in space.

Jon Amos over at the BBC has a great story on the image, which he predicts will become an icon of the space shuttle programme.

There are plenty more images in a slideshow over on ESA’s Flickr site, so crank the Blue Danube waltz up to 11 and enjoy.

Credits: ESA/NASA