We try to bring you the best pictures of the cosmos in our "Month in Space" slideshow, but no single slideshow can give you the full picture for what's going on in space. For one thing, there's always some late additions we just weren't able to slide into the show, such as the picture of last night's Delta 4 rocket launch at right. This is an unusual launch pad view of the rocket taking off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with a next-gen GPS satellite as the payload. (You can find more pictures on the United Launch Alliance's website.) More importantly, you may be missing out on the wider perspective. Sure, the slideshow has a few images from the shuttle Atlantis' just-concluded "last mission" to the International Space Station. But lots of other information and images are available on sites ranging from NASA's Human Spaceflight Web to Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi's Twitpic page. Just today, NASA released a 14-minute video retrospective on the "Ice Team" inspection that preceded Atlantis' launch. Check out my posting from a week ago for more about Atlantis imagery. And check out the links below for more about the images in our "Month in Space" slideshow, including larger versions of the pictures that you can print out or turn into desktop wallpaper.
- Swan song in space (International Space Station)
- Outburst from the sun (Solar Dynamics Observatory)
- Big and small moons (Cassini)
- Flying Seagull (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)
- Oil spill stretches out (Terra)
- Japan's highest lab (International Space Station)
- Flight into the night (Picture from Arianespace)
- Two faces of a grand galaxy (Picture from ESO)
- Flooding in Tennessee (DigitalGlobe)
- Full-frontal shuttle (International Space Station)
- Ash on Mars (Mars Express)
- Storm on the sun (Solar Dynamics Observatory)
- Space snapshot (International Space Station)
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