On November 9, 1969, the uncrewed Apollo 4 test flight made a great ellipse around Earth as a test of the translunar motors and of the high speed entry required of a crewed flight returning from the Moon. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/as4-01-580.jpg

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017 http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/38332007302_cc4875c5bf_o.jpg

Can you identify this river? http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/amazon.jpg

On November 14, 1971, Mariner ( took this image of a shield volcano on Mars. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/7651156028_f41dfff15c_o.jpg

How can you see the atmosphere? The answer is blowing in the wind. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/12772_hurricanes_and_aerosols_youtube_1080.jpg

Orbital ATK's Cygnus resupply ship with its cymbal-ike UltraFlex solar arrays approaches the International Space Station on Nov. 14, 2017. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/37729733334_86a747017a_o.jpg

This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21971-nasa.jpg

A broad hole in the corona was the Sun's dominant feature November 7-9, 2017. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/sdo.jpg

If you plant it, will it grow (in space)? The answer is yes, at least for certain types of plants. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/lettuce.jpg

Ice can be stunningly beautiful and also quite varied in its appearance. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/fingerrafting_pho_2017318_lrg.jpg

This artist's rendering shows the tidal disruption event named ASASSN-14li, where a star wandering too close to a 3-million-solar-mass black hole was torn apart. The debris gathered into an accretion disk around the black hole. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/assasn-14li_banner_0.jpg

These two images illustrate just how far Cassini traveled to get to Saturn. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21353-1041.jpg

Dellingr is a shoebox-sized spacecraft built to show that CubeSat platforms could be cost-effective, reliable and capable of gathering highly robust science. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss053e235252copy_0.jpg

The International Space Station is seen in this twenty-second exposure as it flies over the Washington National Cathedral, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Onboard are: NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/26956023999_14c62dec79_o.jpg

The Hubble Space Telescope peers into the distant universe to reveal a galaxy cluster called Abell 2537. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1748a.jpeg

The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon at roughly five miles per second, Dec. 2, 2017, in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Onboard are NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/37912591295_7c30a77efd_o.jpg

Frigid air blowing from Eastern Russia created dramatic cloud formations over the Sea of Okhotsk in late November, 2017. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the stunning scene on November 25. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/image12022017_250m.jpg

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo spacecraft at sunrise, prior to its departure from the International Space Station at 8:11 a.m., Dec. 6, 2017. Expedition 53 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA gave the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm the command to release Cygnus. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss053e311637.jpg

During an engineering flight test of the Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft shows smoke plumes, from roughly 65,000 feet, produced by the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California, around 1 p.m. PST on Dec. 5th, 2017. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/img_1907a.jpg

This false-color image is composed of 15 images taken through three color filters by NASA's Galileo spacecraft as it passed through the Earth-Moon system on Dec. 8, 1992. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/9460965180_e5246a9e56_o.jpg