Endeavour's Last Mission & Still Setting Records

Endeavour has completed its last mission but this mission also marked the first time a space shuttle was ever photographed while docked as shown here in this pic from IO9's blog.
From the IO9 article:

• While the shuttle was docked, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli left the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and took these photographs during his departure.

There are a couple more good pics on site and a nice short video here on IO9

The Cupola open for business

Thanks to Gizmodo we see vistas from the newest installed module, The Cupola, a seven window beauty installed in Tranquility. This unit was carried aloft by Endeavour on it's most recent mission to the ISS.


Image courtesy of NASA

Last Night Time Launch of a Shuttle video

Here is a YouTube video of Endeavour and the the last night time launch of a shuttle. Endeavour will deliver the last module for the space station - Called Tranquility, the module will be connected to the Unity node. It will provide with an additional dock port for other crew spacecrafts. It will also bring an attachment called Cupola, a huge view port (the largest window ever taken into space) with seven windows, six on the sides and one on top - which will all astronauts to control the robotic arm by sight and also allow off duty personel a spectacular view of Earth.

Astronauts Will Assemble Robot in Space

From Wired: Astronauts on the next Endeavour launch will be doing something that smacks of science fiction. They will be assembling a giant robot in space! On their 16 day mission, shuttle astronauts will spend 3 out of 5 space walks assembling Canadian Space Agency's Dextre - short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter. Dextre is a two-armed space station robot with 11-foot arms, a shoulder span of nearly 8 feet and a height of 12 feet and weighing in at 3,400-pounds. Equipped with a tool holster, Dextre is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and, ultimately, to take over some of their dangerous outdoor work. Dextre can pivot at the waist, and has seven joints per arm. Its hands, or grippers, have built-in socket wrenches, cameras and lights. Only one arm is designed to move at a time to keep the robot stable and avoid a two-arm collision.