The historic Atlantis space mission got off to a flying start with the space shuttle docking safely at the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), Sunday, to deliver a year's worth of vital supplies to those manning the $100 billion orbital outpost - a contingency plan in case the commercial companies hired to take over supply runs to the station encounter delays with their new vehicles.

Start the slideshow to watch the beautiful and rare photos of space taken by ISS and Atlantis crew members.