“Thank you for your 12 missions helping build the ISS.” – ISS Expedition 27 Engineer Ron Garan

NASA astronaut and Expedition 27 Flight Engineer Ron Garan captured this amazingly beautiful image of Atlantis from the window of the Space Station after the shuttle undocked on July 17, 2011. It was the final visit of a shuttle to the ISS.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at KSC on Thursday, July 21 at 5:57 am EDT.

“The ISS wouldn’t be here without the Space Shuttle, so while we have the communication link-up for the last time we wanted to say thank you and farewell to the magnificent machines that delivered, assembled, and staffed our world-class labratory in space.”

– ISS Flight Control Team

This is the last time such a view will be seen. Thanks to the crews – past and present – of the shuttles and the ISS, and to Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron on Twitter) for sharing this image with us.

See more about the undocking on Spaceflight 101, and be sure to visit Ron’s site FragileOasis.org.