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It's been a wild and wacky last few weeks in space, not to mention awe-inspiring, as a spectacular total solar eclipse graced the skies across North America. We also said goodbye to a trusty old rocket, while saying hello to what might finally be the first crewed mission of Boeing's beleaguered Starliner spacecraft. This week's space-themed slideshow is a two-for-one special, as last Friday's edition didn't go out. So without further ado, let's get this cosmic party started. Photo: ULA On April 9, United Launch Alliance launched its triple-core Delta IV Heavy rocket on its final mission. Blasting off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, it marked the end of the Delta family of rockets, which emerged in the early 1960s. Photo: NASA On the right is a fragment that fell from space and crashed into a Florida home. On the left is how the stanchion would have appeared prior to zipping through Earth's atmosphere. The recovered stanchion came from NASA flight support equipment used to mount ISS batteries onto a cargo pallet, which performed an uncontrolled reentry on March 8. No one was hurt, but the incident highlighted the increasing danger posed by falling space debris. Photo: ULA Well here's something you don't see very often: Boeing's Starliner spacecraft sitting atop a rocket, in this case, ULA's Atlas V rocket. Starliner, designed to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station, is woefully behind schedule and frighteningly over budget, but its first crewed demo is set for May 6, launching from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Photo: NASA In this photo taken from the ISS, the Moon's shadow, or umbra, is seen covering parts of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, as well as the U.S. state of Maine, as it flew 261 miles (420 kilometers) above Earth. The total solar eclipse of April 8 was a true wonder of nature, in which the Sun's prominences were visible to the unaided eye during totality. Photo: SpaceX On April 12, SpaceX launched this Falcon 9 rocket. It was an otherwise unremarkable launch, save for the fact that the booster flew on its 20th mission—a record for the company. "Since its first mission in November 2020, this single first stage has launched eight astronauts and more than 500 satellites, totaling 261+ metric tons to orbit in under four years," the company said. Image: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University In rare spacecraft-on-spacecraft action, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a photo of another lunar orbiter: South Korea's Danuri probe. Danuri looks very distorted in the photo—it appears "10 times its size in the opposite direction of travel because of the relative high travel velocities between the two spacecraft," NASA explained. Image: Petr Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava), Josef Kujal (Astronomy Society in Hradec Králové), Milan Hlaváč We knew that comet 12P/Pons-Brooks might be visible during the April 8 eclipse, but little did we realize that another comet, SOHO-5008, would pull off the same trick. Actually, that's not entirely true; Karl Battams, manager of the SOHO Sungrazer Project, predicted this would happen, according to the European Space Agency. Petr Horálek from the Institute of Physics in Opava, Czechia, captured this glorious view of the eclipse and SOHO-5008 from Mexico. Sadly, the comet disintegrated shortly after the image was taken. In another incredible image, Chinese astronomer Lin Zixuan captured no less than six objects in a single image: Comet Pons-Brooks, Comet SOHO-5008, the Moon eclipsing the Sun, Mercury, and Venus. Photo: NASA/Chris Pirner NASA engineer Cindy Fuentes Rosal bids farewell to a Black Brant IX sounding rocket launching from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during the April 8 total solar eclipse. The rocket was one of three launched as part of the APEP mission to study ionospheric disturbances caused by the eclipse. Photo: Thales Alenia Space Doesn't look like much, but this is a mockup of Lunar I-Hab—the section where astronauts will live and work aboard the future Gateway space station, which will orbit the Moon. "During a testing phase known as the 'human in the loop' campaign," experienced astronauts will "go inside the mock-up to give feedback on the interior's design, from mitigating possible safety hazards to simply ensuring they can reach everything," according to the European Space Agency. Image: NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This newly released Hubble Space Telescope image captures jets emerging from a newly forming star within the FS Tau multi-star system, located roughly 450 light-years away in the Taurus-Auriga region. FS Tau A (the really bright one near the center) and FS Tau B (seen at center right) are young stars surrounded by illuminated gas and dust. FS Tau B, a protostar, is seen with a protoplanetary disk and exhibits asymmetric jets, showcasing its evolution into a young, pre-main-sequence star (known as T Tauri stars). Photo: NASA/Jim Ross NASA photographer Jim Ross earned first place in the People category of the NASA Photo of the Year 2023 contest, which was awarded on April 15. The image shows space agency research pilot Nils Larson executing aerobatic maneuvers in a NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center T-34C aircraft during a proficiency flight in Edwards, California. Photo: NASA This glorious photo was taken from the ISS on January 19, and it shows the English Channel and the North Sea surrounded by bright city lights. Prominent Western European cities, such as Paris, Amsterdam, and London, are visible, interconnected by illuminated roads and infrastructure. Photo: Sergey Bobylev (AP) Russia launched its Angara A5 launch vehicle—its first post-Soviet rocket—on April 11. It was the rocket's fourth flight, but the first from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.The Final Countdown for Delta
Incoming!
Starliner Stacked
Big Black Dot
20 Is the Number
Like Trains in the Night
Two for One
Eclipse Rocket
Home Sweet Future Home Around the Moon
A Star Is Born
Inverted Flight
Europe at Night
Russia's Big Rocket