Nasa released the first ever pictures of a US space shuttle docked at the International Space Station, taken by astronauts aboard a departing Russian spacecraft last month.

The shots of the shuttle Endeavour were taken by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli as he and two colleagues left the orbiting lab on May 23 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft bound for earth.

“It is the first ever image of a space shuttle docked to the International Space Station,” Nasa said of the pictures, which show the white shuttle perched atop the sprawling station it helped to build over the past 10 years.

“Once their vehicle was about 183 metres from the station, Mission Control Moscow, outside the Russian capital, commanded the orbiting laboratory to rotate 130 degrees,” it added.

“This move allowed astronaut Nespoli to capture digital photographs and high definition video of shuttle Endeavour docked to the station.”

Mr Nespoli, expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Nasa astronaut Cady Coleman were wrapping up a six-month stay at the orbiting lab and landed later that day in Kazakhstan.

Endeavour was docked at the ISS for 11 days as part of its final mission to space, and was the next-to-last shuttle flight for the 30-year American programme that ends after the final flight of Atlantis, scheduled to launch on July 8.