Rare Endeavour
The space shuttle Endeavour bursts through cloud cover on its last journey into orbit in a photograph taken last week from a commercial airplane.
Shot by American Airlines pilot Lorrie LeBlanc with a cell phone at 37,000 feet (11,000 meters), the picture shows the shuttle as a fiery speck atop its exhaust column. LeBlanc's airplane, en route from Miami to Montreal, was the closest to the shuttle when it launched about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away. "All the other planes wanted to talk to us, asking what we were seeing," LeBlanc said on her Facebook page.
Monday's launch was Endeavour's last. After it brings supplies—and a new cosmic ray detector—to the International Space Station, the shuttle will be retired, decontaminated, and sent for display in the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
Space Pictures This Week: Shuttle Seen From Plane, More
A plane view of the shuttle, an enormous nebula, and dust devils on Mars feature among our editors' picks of the best new space pictures.
