Some of the images in space are so familiar as to have become almost-instant visual cliches. Others most closely resemble abstract paintings, if anything at all. That they are actual celestial bodies seems nearly impossible to fathom. Looking at these pictures, it is easy to become lost in space.
Here is a picture of the crescent earth taken from the moon by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.
There had been liquid-fueled rocket launches since 1926 -- and most, it seems, had been photographed. The larger image is of the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., called Bumper 2, under the direction of the General Electric Company, in July 1950. Seven years later, Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (inset), and space exploration -- and space photography -- entered a new era.
Starring John Glenn
The early (and most popular) images focused more on the explorers than the explored. John Glenn became a hero when his Mercury Atlas rocket blasted off Feb. 20, 1962, and he orbited the earth three times. But even before the trip, he was photographed, top right, inspecting artwork to be painted on the outside of his Mercury capsule, which he nicknamed "Friendship 7."
Rendezvous In Space
The two-man Gemini VI spacecraft was photographed in orbit 160 miles above the earth in 1965 by Gemini VII crewmembers Jim Lovell and Frank Borman as the two spacecrafts prepared to rendezvous.
Man On The Moon
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong descended the ladder to take the first step by a human being on another celestial body -- and then photographed Buzz Aldrin taking the second step, pictured here. Aldrin snapped his bootprint in the lunar soil. After 2 1/2 hours walking around on the surface, they re-entered the Eagle. Its re-ascent was caught by Mike Collins, waiting in the orbiting Columbia.
The photographs from Apollo 11 are among the most famous ever taken, especially this one of Buzz Aldrin by Neil Armstrong with a "70mm lunar surface camera" (probably not too many of those manufactured). The pictures were viewed by billions of Earthlings.
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan was the last of the 12 men who walked on the moon. Here he is, in their December 1972 mission, saluting the flag. "I called the moon my home for three days and I'm here to tell you about it," Cernan says in "In The Shadow Of The Moon," a new documentary of the Apollo astronauts.
By Jupiter!
Public interest may have waned after the manned missions to the moon, but space exploration continued. Voyager I and II, unmanned spaced probes launched in 1977. In March 1979, Voyager I took this picture of the Great Red Spot (a kind of giant hurricane) of the planet Jupiter.
The space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crew members died in the explosion. The era of the space shuttle (re-usable spacecrafts that were supposed to land like airplanes on re-entry) had begun five years earlier with the initial launch of the shuttle Columbia.
Space shuttle Endeavour launches at night in January 1998.
Galaxy Next Door
Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched into orbit around the Earth in 1990, captured a rare view of a bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust, which astronomers have named N44F. It is located about 160,000 light years away, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is the neighboring dwarf galaxy to our own Milky Way.
Planet Next Door
Two NASA "rovers," Spirit and Opportunity, landed on Mars in 2004. The panoramic camera took this picture of the Martian terrain shortly afterward. NASA scientists called the picture a postcard sent across 105 million miles of space to Earth.
Continent Next Door
This picture was taken from the International Space Station in January 2005 not of another planet, but of dunes in the Sahara Desert. This part of the desert is located in Algeria and is called the Issaouane Erg, or the sand sea, which covers an area of more than 14,000 square miles.
Building In Space
In late 1998, the International Space Station began as a joint project of the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and the 17 member nations of the European Space Agency in 1998, with just the U.S.-built Unity connecting with the already-orbiting Russian-built Zarya module (upper left). With each new mission, the station has grown in size -- in 2000 (upper right), 2002 (lower left), 2005 (lower right).
After two visits in 2007, by crews aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and the space shuttle Endeavour, the International Space Station is on its way toward completion by 2010. The plan is for the station to continue to operate until 2016.
Swedish astronaut Arne Christer Fuglesang was photographed Dec. 14, 2006, working on the International Space Station. He had traveled there via Shuttle Discovery. Continuously inhabited by one crew or another since Nov. 2, 2000, the station has been temporary home and laboratory for astronauts from 14 nations.
A Different Moon
Rhea, the second largest of Saturn's moons, was photographed on Feb. 4, 2007, by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which was launched in Oct. 15, 1997, at Cape Canaveral as a joint mission among the United States' National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The Planets
NASA, understanding the appeal of its imagery, put together this montage of the planets in our solar system photographed at various times by various (unmanned) spacecraft. From left to right are actual images of Mercury, Venus, Earth (and Moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (Mercury was taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft; Venus by Magellan; Earth by Galileo; Mars by Viking; the remaining four by Voyager).
A Different Constellation
But the images of outer space go far beyond our solar system, or even our galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope took this photograph of the Omega Nebula, also known as M17, aka the Swan Nebula, a hotbed of newly born stars residing 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Nebula are clouds of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma that eventually become stars.
Home Away From Home
The Earth has been the most frequent subject of photography in space. The large one is by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. The rest were by satellites. From top to bottom: the first picture of earth obtained from space, by the Explorer 6 satellite on Aug. 14, 1959; a 1998 image showing the hole in the earth's ozone layer; a 2001 image mapping heat, indicating possible future global warming.