Image Gallery: The Best Space Shuttle Endeavour Pics

It makes me feel better to know that astronauts' slide shows aren't much cooler than those of us earthbound slobs. NASA's got 58 pages worth of *Endeavour *pics up, and most are smile-and-say-cheese snapshots or humdrum documentation of everyday (space) objects. (Really, can't NASA send a photographer into space next? And maybe a DJ after that? Beats in space, for real. Now that'd be some real Yuri's Night entertainment.)

But even so, every now and then there's a shot like the one above of the International Space Station. More pics after the jump....

S118-E-09416 (19 Aug. 2007) --- Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, the International Space Station moves away from Space Shuttle Endeavour. Earlier the STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews concluded nearly nine days of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 6:56 a.m. (CDT) on Aug. 19, 2007.

S118-E-07920 (18 Aug. 2007) --- Crewmembers on the Space Shuttle Endeavour captured this image around Noon CDT of Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean. At the time the shuttle and International Space Station passed overhead, the Category 4 storm was moving westerly at 17 mph nearing Jamaica carrying sustained winds of 150 mph.

S118-E-06998 (13 Aug. 2007) --- While anchored to the foot restraint on the Canadarm2, astronaut Dave Williams, STS-118 mission specialist representing the Canadian Space Agency, participates in the mission's second planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the 6-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, Williams and astronaut Rick Mastracchio (out of frame), mission specialist, removed a faulty control moment gyroscope (CMG-3) and installed a new CMG into the station's Z1 truss. The failed CMG will remain at its temporary stowage location on the station's exterior until it is returned to Earth on a later shuttle mission. The new gyroscope is one of four CMGs that are used to control the station's attitude in orbit.

S118-E-06984 (13 Aug. 2007) --- While anchored to the foot restraint on the Canadarm2, astronaut Dave Williams, STS-118 mission specialist representing the Canadian Space Agency, participates in the mission's second planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the 6-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, Williams and astronaut Rick Mastracchio (out of frame), mission specialist, removed a faulty control moment gyroscope (CMG-3) and installed a new CMG into the station's Z1 truss. The failed CMG will remain at its temporary stowage location on the station's exterior until it is returned to Earth on a later shuttle mission. The new gyroscope is one of four CMGs that are used to control the station's attitude in orbit.

S118-E-05527 (9 Aug. 2007) --- Backdropped by a cloud-covered part of Earth, the SPACEHAB pressurized logistics module in Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay and vertical stabilizer are featured in this image photographed by an STS-118 crewmember during flight day two activities.

NASA's official space shuttle mission pics page here.