NASA HQ chose their best photos of the year. These are our 13 favorites.

The Soyuz rocket is seen after being rolled out by train to the launch pad at Site 31, Tuesday, September 12, 2023, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub are expected to launch on September 15 aboard their Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

a white-orange parachute with a capsule attached flies down from the sky into a sandy landscape

A training model of the sample return capsule is seen during a drop test in preparation for the sample return capsule retrieval of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, August 30, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

two people watch a space capsule being loaded onto a ship

Support teams lift the SpaceX Dragon Endeavor spacecraft aboard the recovery ship MEGAN shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, astronaut Sultan Alneyadi of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev on board in the Atlantic Ocean. the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, September 4, 2023. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi and Fedyaev return after nearly six months in space as part of Expedition 69 aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky

In this eight-minute footage, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft launches on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov on board, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This image also shows the entry and landing burn at right, performed by the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage as it returned to Landing Zone 1 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission is the seventh crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa and Borisov launched at 3:27 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six-month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky

The Soyuz rocket launches with Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on Friday, September 15, 2023, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Members of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Flight Operations team fly a helicopter as the sample return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission heads to the cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed at the Utah Test and Training Range of the Ministry of Defense. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

photographers stand behind a glass wall while people in white hazmat suits touch a capsule

Curation teams process the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

a man in a spacesuit waves at the camera

Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is helped out of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft just minutes after Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin landed in a remote area near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, September 27, 2023. trio returns to Earth after spending 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest space flight by an American astronaut in history. Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

on a cloudy day a rocket is launched while fire shoots out. a bird flies in the foreground

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Psyche spacecraft launches from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, to study its composition. The spacecraft also features the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the moon. Image: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

a small piece of stone on a microscope slide

A sample of asteroid Bennu is seen on a microscope slide, Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The sample was collected from the carbon-rich nearby asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

a black capsule sits on desert sand near bush brush

The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after landing in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

The moon and star Antares are seen in the sky above a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft, seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, at Kennedy Space Center NASA in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission is the seventh crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov will launch from Launch Complex 39A at 3:27 a.m. EDT on Saturday, August 26 Kennedy Space Center. Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky

a spacecraft floats in the water while people wearing helmets watch from boats

Support teams work around the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina on board in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Saturday, March 11, 2023. Mann, Cassada, Wakata and Kikina return after 157 days in space as part of Expedition 68 aboard the International Space Station. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber