Best Space Photos of the Week - Sept. 8, 2013

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NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are pictured inside their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft minutes prior to their launch to the International Space Station.

Photos: Snowy Soyuz Launches During Winter Storm

Gallery: Virgin Galactic's LauncherOne Rocket for Satellite Missions

Dream Chaser Docking with the International Space Station

Gallery: Meet Dream Chaser, a Private Space Plane

Photos of Space Love: The Asteroid Eros Up Close

Astronaut Fred Haise, Jr., Answers Press Questions

Photos: Space Shuttle Enterprise on Display in NYC

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene A. Cernan makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site in 1972.

Driving on the Moon: Photos of NASA's Lunar Cars

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Spectacular LADEE Night Launch Photos by SPACE.com Readers

Credit: Chris Bakley

Photographer Chris Bakley captured this stunning image of NASA's LADEE moon probe launch from the beach in Cape May Point, N.J., on Sept. 6, 2013. LADEE launched from Wallops Island, Va., and was visible across a wide swath of the U.S. East Coast. [See more images]

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Amazing Mars Solar Eclipse Videos Caught by Curiosity Rover

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems/Texas A&M Univ.

NASA's Curiosity rover has captured two stunning videos of solar eclipses from the surface of Mars, including one that shows the Red Planet's skies darkening dramatically above the 1-ton robot. [Read the Full Story]

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Virgin Galactic's 2nd Rocket-Powered SpaceShipTwo Flight

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completed its second powered flight on Sept. 5, 2013 over California's Mojave Desert. This image was taken by MARS Scientific as part of the Mobile Aerospace Reconnaissance System optical tracking system. [See more images]

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Eagle Constellation Soars Through Summer Night Sky in Dazzling Photo

Credit: Bill Schlein

A skywatcher has snapped a stunning photo of the constellation Aquila. [Read the Full Story]

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Amazing Night Sky Photos by Stargazers: September 2013

Credit: William Ambrosi

Sky watcher William Ambrosi sent in a photo of the waning moon taken from his front porch in Carson Valley, east of Carson City, NV. He notes that many fires in the western United States, including Yosemite's Rim fire, have made it hard to breathe, but produced unusual photo opportunities. Photo submitted Sept. 4, 2013. [See more images]

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Bubble Nebula Dazzles In Stargazer's Stunning Photos

Credit: Terry Hancock

Avid astrophotographer Terry Hancock captured these brilliant images of the Bubble Nebula from the Down Under Observatory in Fremont, Mich. See how he did it. [Read the Full Story]

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Planet Cakes: Australian Baker's Out-of-This World Creations

Credit: Cakecrumbs

Asia, Australia, Antarctica and part of Africa can all be seen in this view of the Earth planetary structure layer cake. [See more images]

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Hubble Telescope Spots 'Cosmic Caterpillar' 6 Trillion Miles Long

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and IPHAS

Slinking along through the sands of space is a "cosmic caterpillar" as dubbed by NASA in a new photo released from the Hubble Space Telescope. [Read the Full Story]

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Spectacular Fireball Outshines Moon Over American Southeast (Video)

Credit: NASA/MSFC

A stunningly bright fireball lit up the skies over the American South last week, and NASA caught the dramatic action on video. [Read the Full Story]

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Moon Pies for Sale at NASA LADEE Lunar Launch

Credit: Miriam Kramer/SPACE.com

The tiny satellites that could change the way humanity views and monitors its home planet are getting their first close-up. [Read the Full Story]

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In the Still of the Night

Credit: Jerry Payne

Astrophotographer Jerry Payne sent in a photo of star trails reflected in water covering the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Nevada. Payne writes in an e-mail to SPACE.com: “The photo consists of a about 2 hours worth of 30-second exposures summed using Startrails.exe software ... This area of the salt flats was covered with a thin layer of water, from either snow-melt or a recent storm. That plus a cloudless night, no moon, and extremely calm wind conditions allowed for this photo.” [See More Images]

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Made in America

Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance

Happy Labor Day from SPACE.com. A Delta 4 Heavy rocket launched a secret satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California on Aug. 28, 2013. The NROL-65 mission supports national defense. The Delta 4 Heavy, built by ULA and first flown in 2004, represents the biggest, most powerful American rocket in operation today. The 235-foot-tall (72-meter) launcher produces about 2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, according to ULA officials. Two strap-on boosters give the rocket a distinctive appearance.[See More Images]