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

News
By published

Made in America

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]

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor. 

More about spaceflight

See photos snapped in space by Europe's 1st private reentry capsule

Pine Barrens ablaze as seen from orbit | Space photo of the day for April 28, 2025

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida (photos)
See more latest
Most Popular
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites to orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on May 1, 2025.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 28 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida (photos)
An artist's depiction of Lunar Trailblazer at work around the moon.
NASA still trying to revive silent Lunar Trailblazer moon orbiter
two astronauts in white spacesuits work outside a space station
NASA astronauts prep ISS for new solar arrays on 5th-ever all-female spacewalk
earth can be seen behind metallic tubing and wires on the outside of a spacecraft
FAA grounds Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket until failure investigation is complete
illustration showing a boxy silver spacecraft with large solar arrays in deep space
Psyche spacecraft's sci-fi thrusters suffer glitch on way to metal-rich asteroid
depictions of people raising their hands towards the sky underneath a stretched-out depiction of a goddess forming an arcing sky above them, with stars covering her body
These 5000-year-old Egyptian coffins depict the Milky Way galaxy, astrophysicist says
A stunning long-duration photograph of the Roscosmos segment of the International Space Station with the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft docked above Earth’s atmospheric glow as seen 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
International Space Station fires thrusters to avoid Chinese rocket debris
night sky map graphic
See Saturn and Venus flank ghostly Neptune in the pre-dawn sky on May 2
a cracker topped with a slice of meat, cheese and a drizzle of red paste, all floating in zero gravity in a space station module lined with wires and computer screens
ISS astronaut shares recipe for a 'ranger' burger | Space photo of the day for May 1, 2025
three grey moons orbit a planet lined with rings of clouds
Evidence of controversial Planet 9 uncovered in sky surveys taken 23 years apart