Following the Gemini XII splashdown on Nov. 15, 1966, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, left, and Jim Lovell are welcomed aboard the recovery aircraft carrier, USS Wasp, concluding their four-day mission. Gemini XII was the final flight of the Gemini program, a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo programs. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/12-gemini_12_recovery-23jpg.jpg

Flying over the Philippine Sea, an astronaut looked toward the horizon from the International Space Station and shot this photograph of three-dimensional clouds, the thin blue envelope of the atmosphere, and the blackness of space. The late afternoon sunlight brightens a broad swath of the sea surface on the right side of the image. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss048e010018_lrg_0.jpg

Expedition 50 crewmembers ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, top, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, middle, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos wave farewell before boarding their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft for launch Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, (Kazakh Time) in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nhq201611170001.jpg

In this one second exposure photograph, the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft is seen launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Expedition 50 crewmembers NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, Kazakh time (Nov 17 EST). http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/31068115625_9b0dd3bcba_o.jpg

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and its GOES-R payload at the launchpad as preparations continue for launch at 5:42 p.m. EST, Saturday, Nov. 19, from Space Launch Complex 41. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ksc-20161118-ph_jbs01_0112.jpg

Surface features are visible on Saturn's moon Prometheus in this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20508-1041.jpg

Spiral galaxy NGC 3274 is a relatively faint galaxy located over 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1647a.jpg

A high fidelity test version of NASA’s Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), the largest plant chamber built for the agency, arrived at Kennedy Space Center the third week of November, 2016. The APH unit, containing small flowering plant seeds, will be delivered to the International Space Station in 2017. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/30795688500_ed64d9f74b_o.jpg

The six Expedition 50 crew members celebrate Thanksgiving in space, Nov. 24, 2016, with rehydrated turkey, stuffing, potatoes and vegetables. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cydlkybweaewesk.jpg_orig.jpeg

Saturn's icy moon Mimas is dwarfed by the planet's enormous rings. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20509-1041.jpg

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed a sunset that looks like a vast sheet of flame. With Earth’s surface already in darkness, the setting sun, the cloud masses, and the sideways viewing angle make a powerful image of the kind that astronauts use to commemorate their flights. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss049e049442_lrg.jpg

On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on Nov. 18. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cxaovzcwqaa0nll.jpg

The moon Hyperion tumbles as it orbits Saturn. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20512-1041x398.jpg

Middle school students programmed a camera aboard the International Space Station -- the Sally Ride EarthKAM -- to photograph this portion of the Sahara desert in western Libya on October 3, 2016. The Expedition 50 crew set up the EarthKAM gear in the Harmony module’s Earth-facing hatch window, to allow students to photograph targets on Earth. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ccfid_113386_2016277154705_image.jpg

On November 1, 2016, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Indonesia, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves from the Lombok Strait. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/image11052016_250m.jpg

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) used a long lens to document what crews have termed one of the most spectacular features of the planet: the dunes of the Namib Sand Sea. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss047e023405_lrg.jpg

Many Martian landscapes contain features that are familiar to ones we find on Earth, like river valleys, cliffs, glaciers and volcanos. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21216.jpg

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA shared this photograph of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-6) as it approached the International Space Station. Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet successfully captured the spacecraft using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/czj8bxlw8aapi4b.jpg

The foreground of this scene from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows purple-hued rocks near the rover's late-2016 location on lower Mount Sharp. The scene's middle distance includes higher layers that are future destinations for the mission. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21256_sol1516mrseq07719-nolabels.jpg

Hurricane forecasters will soon have a new tool to better understand and forecast storm intensity. A constellation of eight microsatellites, called NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission, or CYGNSS, got a boost into Earth orbit aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket, deployed from an L-1011 aircraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/g0043192.jpg

Spiral galaxy IC 5201 sits 40 million light-years from us in the Crane constellation. As with most spirals we see, it has a bar of stars slicing through its center. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1650a.jpg