A rare perspective of the Space Shuttle Endeavour docked at the ISS

Space · Published 18 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before its retirement, the Space Shuttle Endeavour played a vital role in constructing the International Space Station. A recently released video captures a fleeting moment of orbital proximity, filmed from a departing Soyuz spacecraft, offering a unique view of the shuttle and the station in tandem.

The footage was captured by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli during his departure from the International Space and Space Station. From 600 feet away, Nespoli recorded the station while travelling in the Russian Soyuz with Cady Coleman and Dmitry Kondratyev. The footage captured the shuttle, a craft vital to constructing the station during the previous ten years, as the station turned 130 degrees.

While the video captures a moment in orbit, the Endeavour's journey on Earth has been equally dramatic. Following its retirement, the orbiter was transported through the streets of Los Angeles in 2012, a feat that required the removal of power lines, traffic signals, and trees to accommodate its passage from LAX to its permanent home. This orbiter, the last constructed by NASA, completed 25 missions between 1992 and 2011, including landmark tasks like the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Now, the shuttle is preparing for a new era of visibility. This November, the California Science Center will open the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles. The exhibition will feature the 'ready-to-launch' stack—including the last surviving flight-qualified external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters—standing nearly 200 feet tall. Visitors will be able to view the hardware from ground-level beneath the engines to a top-down perspective through a glass floor, part of a larger expansion featuring 100 new exhibits and aerospace artifacts.

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