Before “Gravity” rocketed away from the 2014 Academy Awards Sunday with an incredible seven Oscars (including best visual effects and cinematography), NASA released a collection of incredible high-resolution images of the real space locales that inspired the film.
The Space Shuttle Atlantis as seen from Russia’s Mir Space Station in July of 1995.
Astronaut Steven L. Smith retrieves tools used to service the Hubble Space Telescope from the Shuttle’s remote manipulator system.
Astronaut Chris Cassidy shoots photos of Earth from inside the International Space Station.
A Russian Soyuz Space Capsule docked at the ISS – the method of transport used by NASA since the retirement of the shuttle fleet.
The ISS in May of 2011.
The Earth and the Moon from the tail of Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.
The sun rises on Space Shuttle Atlantis during its final mission before landing at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, concluding NASA’s 30-year shuttle program.
Check out all of “‘Gravity’ – NASA’s Real-Life Images from Space” on the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr stream.