2022 Aviation Week Photo Contest Editors’ Picks: Space

A SpaceX Falcon 9 makes a dramatic twilight touchdown after launching a science satellite.

The Falcon 9 Starlink 4-31 mission lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, a minute after local sunset, but the Sun was still above the horizon—as pictured from an altitude of 6,500 ft. The Sun is flattened by atmospheric refraction but also looks a bit rattled by the shockwaves.

The SpaceX Crew 4 launch rises to orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket en route to its eventual docking with the International Space Station. This image, captured from a location at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and nearby Mosquito Lagoon Aquatic Preserve north of the Kennedy Space Center, is a composite. The Milky Way was captured in a 25-sec. exposure  1 min. before the April 27 launch. The rocket streak was captured in a 308-sec. exposure.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft onboard on Nov. 23, 2021, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. DART is the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test, demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection technology. The mission was built and is managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

A nearly full Moon rises behind NASA’s Space Launch System Artemis I rocket on Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center.

With the Andromeda Galaxy by its side, the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket descends toward the horizon.

Shockwaves from a Falcon 9 are pictured against the morning Sun.