Photo: View of a Departing Progress Cargo Droid – And an Echo From a Future Past

The unpiloted ISS Progress 43 supply vehicle departs from the International Space Station on Aug. 23, 2011. Filled with trash and discarded items, Progress 43 will remain in orbit a safe distance from the station for engineering tests before being commanded by flight controllers to descend to a destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean ISS028-E-028817 (23 Aug. 2011) — high res (0.9 M) low res (76 K)

An unmanned pod from the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” under control of the HAL 9000 computer.