Space On Ground - 2016 Aviation Week Photo Contest Finalists

ET-94, the last space shuttle external fuel tank in existence, is surrounded by fans as it departs for the California Science Center from nearby Marina Del Rey.

ET-94 is led by two motorcycle police officers through Los Angeles.

ET-94 moves through Los Angeles at night.

ET-94 moves through Marina Del Rey, California.

Mountainside view of a test firing of an Orbital/ATK QM-2 Solid Rocket Motor at Promontory, Utah, on June 18.

Soot from the reentry and landing burns leaves its dark fingers on this SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the first to successfully perform a powered landing after delivering its payload to orbit, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Landing Zone 1.

SpaceX's recovered JCSAT-14 booster is transported at Port Canaveral, Florida, past the last  SM-64 Navaho missile. The JCSAT-14 booster survived reentry after delivering its payload to a geostationary transfer orbit, landing aboard SpaceX's drone ship. This Navaho missile was later damaged during Hurricane Matthew in October.

The rising Sun at Space Launch Complex 37B of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station creates a halo for United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy rocket.

Vega launcher is seen after a gantry rollout on the day before its launch from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Dec. 2, 2015. 

Soyuz launcher is becoming vertical on Pad 1 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Dec. 13, 2015.

Launch vehicle is transported by rail car from a fueling station to Pad 200 on March 11 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Launch vehicle is transported by rail car from a fueling station to Pad 200 on March 11 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Launch vehicle is transported by rail car from a fueling station to Pad 200 on March 11 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

Proton booster is lifted into launch position at Pad 200 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on March 11.

Space shuttle Discovery is displayed in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

Firefly tests its aerospike rocket engine in Briggs, Texas.

Soyuz TMA-19M is ready for launch on the Gagarinsky pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. 

At 1:36 a.m. EDT on April 12, the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" returned to Port Canaveral and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying CRS-8, the first Falcon 9 rocket to land on a ship.

The first stage of the JCSAT-14 Falcon 9 rocket was launched by SpaceX and then landed atop the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." The ship and rocket returned to Port Canaveral on May 9.