2024 Aviation Week Photo Contest Editors’ Picks: Space

Arianespace’s Ariane 6 expendable launch system lifts off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana on its first flight. 

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS passes behind the Europa Clipper’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy, soon to join it on its journey through the Solar System.

U.S. Space Force Mission 51 launches from Cape Canaveral SFS Pad 41, marking the final Defense Department mission using the Atlas V launch system.

Falcon Heavy boosters land at Cape Canaveral after the launch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration GOES-U weather satellite.

The BlueBird Block 1 mission launches just before sunset from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40, perfectly positioning the rocket and exhaust in the evening light.

This SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries Crew 9 astronauts to the ISS in a Crew Dragon capsule named “Freedom.” This image was taken by a remote camera using a sound trigger and telephoto lens, placed the day before directly in front of the flame trench, according to photographer Richard P. Gallagher. Dozens of water nozzles placed around the trench quench the rocket exhaust as it is expelled during liftoff, converting the water into an enormous steam cloud. The liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral SFS was the first time that the new crew access arm was used. 

This SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries Starlink Group 6-52 as it transits the Moon. The rocket launched from LC-40 at Cape Canaveral SFS in Florida at 6:50 p.m. on April 18.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carries the U.S. Space Force-52 mission past the Moon and into space on Dec. 28, 2023. The mission extended the flight envelope of the X-37B reusable spacecraft.