You may have been reading about the recent mission of the space shuttle Atlantis and its trip to the International Space Station. It was the final journey for Atlantis with only 2 more space shuttle missions left now, from Endeavour and Discovery, before the 30-year space shuttle adventure ends.

Over on Google Earth Blog there is an article telling us how Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, while on board the International Space Station, has sent many fascinating pictures back to earth, some for example showing the first aerial pictures of the huge earthquake in Chile.

Now we hear that Noguchi has also taken pictures of the space shuttle Atlantis on its final mission as it prepared to dock with the I.S.S. Way off in the distance you can even see the Canary Islands as a backdrop. Noguchi, who is now safely home, and his photographs have given people an amazing insight into how things look from space.

If you go to gearthblog.com you can see how to download the KML file. You can also go to Noguchi’s Twitter account here, or look at more images on his Twitpic page here. What do you think of the images and how do you feel about the last voyage of Atlantis? We’d be interested to hear your comments.