Space Image of the Day Gallery (February 2018)

Double Touchdown!

SpaceX

Thursday, February 15, 2018: Two side boosters of SpaceX's new Falcon Heavy rocket returned to Cape Canaveral for a glorious side-by-side landing shortly after the new megarocket launched on its maiden voyage on Feb. 6. — Hanneke Weitering

Progress 69

Roscosmos/Twitter via @Anton_Astrey

Friday, February 16, 2018: Russia's Progress 69 cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Feb. 15 to deliver 3 tons of supplies for the Expedition 54 crew. The cargo craft docked at the Russian Zvezda module at 5:38 a.m. EST (1038 GMT) after a two-day flight. — Hanneke Weitering

Frozen Peaks Rise in Saturn's B Ring

NASA/JPL/SSI

Tuesday, February 20, 2018: Icy particles clump together to form a ridge of fluffy peaks along the outer edge of Saturn's B ring, the largest and brightest ring in the Saturn system. These peaks rise as tall as 1.6 miles (2.5 km) above the plane of the ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of the mountainous B ring on July 26, 2009. — Hanneke Weitering

Astronaut Spots Houston from Space

Mark Vande Hei/NASA/Twitter via @Astro_Sabot

Wednesday, February 21, 2018: NASA astronaut and Expedition 54 flight engineer Mark Vande Hei captured this photo of Houston, Texas by night from 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth at the International Space Station. "Hello, Houston!" Vande Hei tweeted on Tuesday (Feb. 20). "Looking forward to being home after @AstroAcaba and I land next week. Lots of great people down there!" Houston is home to NASA's Johnson Space Center, where NASA astronauts train for spaceflight. — Hanneke Weitering

Progress on the Horizon

NASA

Thursday, February 22, 2018: In this stunning view from the International Space Station, a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft orbits above the nighttime side of the Earth as sunlight illuminates the atmosphere around the horizon. — Hanneke Weitering

A Glorious Pre-Dawn Rocket Launch

SpaceX

Friday, February 23, 2018: SpaceX launched a used Falcon 9 rocket early Thursday morning (Feb. 22) to deliver the Paz Earth-imaging satellite and two of the company's new Starlink broadband internet satellites into low-Earth orbit. This long-exposure shot shows the rocket soaring up into the sky after lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. — Hanneke Weitering

'A Band of Brothers'

Scott Tingle/NASA/Twitter via @Astro_Maker

Monday, February 26, 2018: Six crewmembers of Expedition 54 pose for a fun group photo at the International Space Station shortly before three of them are scheduled to return to Earth. NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin (left column, from top to bottom) will land in their Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft tomorrow (Feb. 27) at 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT on Feb. 28). — Hanneke Weitering

Our Galactic Neighbors

Gaudenz Gerig Photo

Tuesday, February 27, 2018: Two nearby galaxies known as the Magellanic Clouds glow beside the starry core of the Milky Way above a South African landscape in this photo by Gaudenz Gerig. Shining brightly to the left of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is Canopus, the second-brightest star in the sky. Both the LMC and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. — Hanneke Weitering

Welcome Home!

Bill Ingalls/NASA

Wednesday, February 28, 2018: A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three crewmembers from the International Space Station parachutes down to Earth as the sun rises over a blanket of clouds. The crew safely touched down yesterday (Feb. 27) on the steppe of Kazakhstan. — Hanneke Weitering

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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.