Earth from the Space Shuttle

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Originally uploaded by marymactavish.

Wow! Check out these fabulous cloud photos from STS-125, the final Hubble servicing mission.

I found them on boston.com's The Big Picture.

Some are NASA photos (and thus free to use with attribution) but some are copyrighted to Getty, AP, and at least one private individual.



I love the way the clouds in the streaky, mackerel-sky photo outline the west coast of Baja so beautifully, and the swirls in sea over . . . where is that? Africa?

Click through to The Big Picture to see more photos, including the non-NASA photos, and a great display of some of the tools the astronauts use -- and all the pictures are (of course) BIG.

This mission has driven me to nail biting and tears more than once. I love it. I am captivated. I envy the folks who get to do the EVAs, am sorry for those who aren't. I cheer Megan, who is from my area, and Drew, who is just the epitome of grace under pressure. And today, when John Grunsfeld knocked the cap off of an antenna, I carried my laptop around to do a few things I had to do around the house, because I couldn't leave the live feed, my heart was in my throat in sympathy with poor John. "I feel sick," he said. But they let him fix it, and he did, and everything's fine now.

Go John.

Go Atlantis and your crew, go Hubble.

Go human exploration of space.