You Must Scrutinize NASA’s Easiest Photography of the Year

NASA is a proud agency that loves posting a photo album. The agency released 100 of its most moving 2023 photos on flickr which showcase the highlights of the past year.

From asteroid samples landing on Earth to selecting the first crew of astronauts to go to the Moon since Apollo, this album has it all (and perhaps a bit more than expected). These images were all taken in 2023, and were also selected by NASA’s HQ photo team. Gizmodo picked the most moving of the most moving photos to help you relive some glorious moments in spaceflight.

Touchdown!

On September 24, 2023, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped off a sample return capsule containing rocky bits of asteroid Bennu. The capsule landed in the Utah desert, delivering a total of 4.29 oz (121.6 grams) of material.

Crack it launch

Once on Earth, curation teams transported the samples to a clean room for processing. NASA struggled to open a spherical sampler head on the end of an articulated arm that the spacecraft used to collect the sample before finally cracking it open on January 10 of this year.

Blast off!

This stellar image shows Russia’s Soyuz rocket launching with Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, on September 15, 2023.

Welcome home

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitri Petelin are seen here minutes after landing in the area near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan inside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on September 27, 2023.

Breaking the file

Rubio logged 371 days in design as contributors of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the Global Home Region (ISS), breaking the file for the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in historical past.

Splashdown

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is seen here being hoisted aboard the recovery ship Megan shortly after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on September 4, 2023, carrying NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

RIP Ingenuity

The design agency donated this aerial prototype of the Mars Helicopter to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Earlier this year, Ingenuity broke its blades and ended its mission on the Red Planet.

The unique crew

In April 2023, four astronauts were selected for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. NASA published the identities of the four-person crew for the Artemis 2 mission: NASA astronauts Victor Glover, who will serve as pilot for the mission, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman as mission specialists, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen as mission commander.

Psyched!

NASA’s Psyche mission to study a metal-rich asteroid launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on October 13, 2023 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Keeping the Amazon

A team of Amazonian leaders visited NASA’s Earth Science Division on November 17, 2023, to discuss how data collected by the agency could be used to help protect the Amazon.

Moonlight

This NASA image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Dragon spacecraft atop the launch pad at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before the launch of the Crew-7 mission on August 26, 2023.

Divulge and roar

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and Robert Hines participated in STEM demonstrations with students at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library on March 30, 2023.

High down

This image shows Russia’s Soyuz rocket after being rolled out to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 12, 2023. The rocket launched Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub to the ISS.

A beauty

A sample from asteroid Bennu is confirmed right here being prepared atop a microscope slide at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The museum unveiled the first public display of the asteroid sample on November 3, 2023.

Egg hunt

NASA astronaut Alvin Drew poses for a photograph with an aspiring astronaut during the White House Easter Egg Roll on April 10, 2023.

Prepare for landing

The Russian Search and Recovery Forces’ All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) team are shown here while preparing for the landing of the Expedition 69 astronauts on September 27, 2023.

Views

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins, and Robert Hines taking a look at an interactive recreation of the ISS observatory module, called Cupola, at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Doing it for the young folks

Students are shown here participating in a Minecraft Artemis demonstration during Space Education Day on June 20, 2023, at the Microsoft Store in Arlington, Virginia.

Sample fall-off

This image shows presentations by Lockheed Martin System Security Engineer Victoria Thiem and On Scene Commander of Restoration Stuart Wylie performing preliminary assessments on the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission shortly after it landed in the Utah desert.

The crew

NASA’s Artemis 2 crew speaking at the White House on December 14, 2023.

Future astronauts

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson are seen here speaking with the 2021 astronaut candidate class at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington on October 18, 2023.