Ready to LaunchNASA's Orion spacecraft—capable of taking astronauts to space and back—nestles into its latest home at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on November 12. The move is in preparation for a test flight on December 4 to work out any kinks in the safety equipment. The flight will take four hours and orbit the Earth twice. —By Jane J. Lee, photo gallery by Nicole Werbeck
Photograph by John Raoux, Associated Press

Week's Best Space Pictures: A Star Dies, Mars Cracks, and Neutrinos Are Born

Astronomers capture the brilliant glow of a dying star, ice on Mars begins to crack, and a supermassive black hole belts out exotic particles in this week's best space pictures.

Published November 14, 2014