Best Space Photos of the Week - May 6, 2012

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Galileo Shuttlecraft Restoration Project

Original 'Star Trek' Galileo Shuttlecraft Restored (Photos)

Team Examines Meteorite on Nansen Ice Field

Big Meteorite Found in Antarctica (Photo Gallery)

Fifty years ago on May 5, 1961 only 23 day after Yuri Gagarin of the then-Soviet Union became the first person in space, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard launched at 9:34 a.m. EDT aboard his Freedom 7 capsule powered by a Redstone booster to become the first A

Photos: Freedom 7, America's 1st Human Spaceflight

Planetfall: Mimas Against Saturn Rings Shadows

Planetfall: Wonders of the Solar System (Photos)

Photos: Spectacular Comet Views from Earth and Space

This National Reconnaissance Office released graphic depicts the huge HEXAGON spy satellite, a Cold War era surveillance craft that flew reconnaissance missions from 1971 to 1986.

Declassified! 1972 Spy Satellite Capsule's Deep-Sea Rescue (Photos)

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Supermoon 2012 Photos: Big Full Moon Views from Around the World

Credit: Tim McCord

The supermoon of 2012 rises over Entiat, Wash., in this photo by skywatcher Tim McCord snapped on May 5, 2012. [Full Photo Gallery]

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USAF Launches New AEHF 2 Satellite

Credit: Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off with the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency-2 (AEHF-2) satellite from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 2:42 p.m. EDT on May 4, 2012. [Full Photo Gallery]

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Contemplating the Night Sky: Young Skywatchers Admire Venus, Moon & Jupiter

Credit: Stephano De Rosa

Three little skywatchers look on in wonder as they witness the recent conjunction between Jupiter, Venus and the Moon. The image was taken by Stefano De Rosa from Turin, Italy on March 25. [Full Story]

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Gallery: SpaceX's 1st Mission to Space Station - How It Works

Credit: SpaceX

A step-by-step photo look at how SpaceX's inaugural flight to the International Space Station will work. [Full Photo Gallery]

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Black Hole Unleashes Extraordinarily Bright X-Ray Burst

Credit: Left image - Optical: ESO/VLT; Close-up - X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R. Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/Middlebury College/F. Winkler et al.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered an extraordinary outburst by a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, located about 15 million light years from Earth. [Full Story]

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Spectacular Photo Reveals Bright Nebula Near Orion's Belt

Credit: ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/T. Stanke et al./Igor Chekalin/Digitized Sky Survey 2

A new image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s Belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. [Full Story]

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Photos: Visiting Death Valley With Mars Rover Curiosity Crew

Credit: Mike Wall/SPACE.com

Photos of SPACE.com reporter Mike Wall's recent trip to Death Valley with the lead scientist for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. [Full Photo Gallery]

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Rubber Chicken Survives High-Flying Trip Through Solar Storm

Credit: Earth to Sky — Bishop, CA

Last month, when the sun unleashed the most intense radiation storm since 2003, a group of high school students from California launched a rubber chicken on a helium balloon to an altitude of 120,000 feet to study the sun's radiation. [Full Story]

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Star Trek Fans to Launch Kirk & Picard to Edge of Space

Credit: Logan Kugler

A group of Trekkies has united to launch Captain Kirk and Captain Picard--their action figures, that is--into space in a high-altitude balloon. [Full Story]

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Amazing Photos of 2 Saturn Moons Snapped by Cassini Probe

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took some spectacular photos of the Saturn moons Dione and Enceladus earlier this week. [Full Story]

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Gallery: Dying Stars Consume Rocky Alien Planets

In this artist's impression, the host star is running out of hydrogen in the core. It is also losing mass, which causes the planets to move further out. The perturbation of the orbits may lead to collisions that will generate large amounts of rocky debris.[Full Photo Gallery]

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Why the 'Supermoon' Will Look Largest Near the Horizon

Credit: Brett Hoffman

For reasons still unknown to science, the moon appears much larger and more magnificent when it is near the horizon than when it is soaring overhead, despite the fact that the moon's size never actually changes.[Full Story]

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Earth's Beauty from Space Dazzles in Astronaut Video

Credit: NASA

A stunning new video shows Earth through an astronaut's eyes, letting the rest of us see just how beautiful our planet is from 240 miles up. [Full Story]