Pirs undocking

The Pirs docking compartment left the Space Station after 20 years of service and burned up safely in the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean on Monday. Its departure made room for the new science module Nauka and the European Robotic Arm. 

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture of the Progress spacecraft and Pirs module leaving the Station during his Alpha mission. He said: "It’s not every day that you see a piece of the Station being taken away. We pitched the International Space Station 90 degrees, and so we flew belly first, to help out with the manoeuvre. Pyotr and myself tried to capture some photos and videos of this important moment in the Station's history. Quite a strange feeling to see a part of your ship fly away. A couple of hours later and we had front row seat to the fireball that was going to be DC1’s last act."