NASA's real 'Gravity' photos

This evening, to celebrate the best visual effects Oscar for "Gravity," NASA put up a gallery of photographs that could easily have been inspiration for the hit film.

In this 1984 image, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II, was photographed further away from his space ship than any other astronaut in history. He was able to do so thanks to the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. He was 320 feet from the Challenger orbiter.

In this 2009 photograph, the sun appears over the horizon of the Earth, greeting the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Brisbane, Australia, is seen far below the cupola of the International Space Station, inside which some crew activity can be seen.

The Earth and the moon are perfectly framed in this photograph taken from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy photographs Earth, 250 miles below, from the cupola of the ISS.

In this 2009 photo, astronaut Andrew Feustel is using a foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle Atlantis' remove manipulator system in order to move a component being used to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope.

This photograph of astronaut Sunita Williams won the 2011 SAVE Award. In it, Williams uses a pistol grip tool on the ISS during the first of three 2007 spacewalks. She and a fellow astronaut reconfigured a cooling loop for the Destiny laboratory module, rearranged electrical connections and secured the starboard radiator of the P6 truss after retraction.

Spain and Portugal fill the frame in this photograph taken from the ISS.

Another SAVE Award-winning photo, this image depicts astronaut Steven Smith retrieving a power tool while he stands on a mobile foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle's remote manipulator system.

This close-up photos of astronaut John Grunsfeld reveals the reflection of another astronaut, Andrew Feustel, who is standing on the robotic arm and taking the photo. It was taken in 2009.

The first-ever spacewalk, made by astronaut Ed White, a member of the Gemini4 mission, on June 3, 1965.

Astronaut John Grunsfeld perches on a foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle Atlantis' remote manipulator system.

The sun rises over the Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 19, 2011, during the last-ever Space Shuttle mission.

In this panoramic photograph, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is seen in front of the ISS' solar array, and Earth in the background. In addition, the Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights, are also visible.