The Last Space Shuttle's Return in 3-D

By Nancy Atkinson - July 22, 2011 08:43 PM UTC | Space Exploration

We shared an image yesterday of an amazing view of Atlantis on its way home taken by the Expedition 28 crew of the space station. 3-D-ifier Nathanial Burton Bradford has now given a new perspective to this image, making a 3-D image, best seen with red/cyan glasses. Amazingly, in this view the contrail left by the shuttle as is travels through Earth's atmosphere even looks far away, how it must have looked to the ISS crew.

Also, Nathanial created a 3-D version of Atlantis' final launch, below:

Thanks to Nathanial Burton-Bradford for sharing his images. See more on his Flickr page, including Atlantis in orbit and a view from the space station.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com