Best Space Photos of the Week - April 21, 2012

Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies into the sunrise above Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 17, 2012. The ferry flight, destined for Washington, D.C., marked the final departure for Discovery from its home for three decades. [More Images]

A zucchini has taken up residence on the International Space Station. [Full Story]

Former astronauts John Glenn and Bob Cabana posed for a historic picture on the flight deck of the space shuttle Discovery to bid farewell to the shuttle. They are two of the many astronauts saying goodbye to the iconic space plane. [Full Story]

The noses of space shuttles Enterprise, left, and Discovery face one another at a transfer ceremony at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Thursday, April 19, 2012, in Chantilly, Va. [More Images]

Several million stars are vying for attention in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula nebula. [Full Story]

The space shuttle Discovery's flying days may be over, but a set of stunning new panoramic photos ensures that the space plane will remain fresh in people's minds for years to come. [Full Story]

A full-size model of a new space capsule being built by Boeing to carry astronauts to the International Space Station offers a glimpse of how spaceflyers will be positioned inside the spacecraft. [Full Story]

The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope looks skyward during a moonlit night on Chajnantor Plateau in Chile, one of the highest and driest observatory sites in the world. On the left shines the tail of the constellation of Scorpius, the Scorpion. Across the sky stretches the plane of the Milky Way. Elsewhere in this photo, one can see the constellation of Sagittarius, The Archer, looming over APEX’s dish. Also, Messier 7 (AKA Ptolemy’s Cluster), Messier 6 (the Butterfly Cluster), and the Lagoon Nebula all appear here. Image released April 16, 2012. [More Images]

Saturn's icy moon Enceladus floats below the gas giant's rings while another moon, Titan, lurks in the background, in this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft on March 12, 2012. [More Images]

The space shuttle Discovery is suspended from a sling held by two cranes shortly after the NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) was pushed back from underneath at Washington Dulles International Airport, Thursday, April 19, 2012, in Sterling, VA. [Full Story]