Atlantis Farewell from Parkes
The Parkes
64 meter radio telescope is known for its
contribution to human spaceflight, famously supplying
television images
from the Moon to denizens
of planet Earth during Apollo 11.
The enormous, steerable, single
dish looms in the foreground
of this early evening skyscape.
Above it, the starry skies of New South Wales, Australia include
familiar southerly constellations
Vela, Puppis, and
Hydra along with
a sight that will never be seen again.
Still glinting in sunlight and streaking right to left
just below the radio telescope's focus cabin,
the space shuttle orbiter
Atlantis has just undocked with the
International Space Station
for the final time.
The space station itself follows
arcing from the lower right corner of the frame,
about two minutes behind Atlantis in low Earth orbit.
Atlantis is set for its final landing early this morning
(July 21, 5:56am EDT) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
