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Space exploration 2011 NASA marked the final launch of its 30-year-old space shuttle program but sent unmanned missions elsewhere, including Mars and Jupiter. Other nations also continued their interplanetary explorations.
This image of the asteroid Vesta was captured by the Dawn spacecraft from 3,200 miles away. Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 15 and will spend a year orbiting the body. The next stop on Dawn's itinerary will be the dwarf planet Ceres.
NASA/JPL
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via AP
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An undated image shows a rippled dune in the Herschel Crater on Mars. The dune has moved an average of two yards from March 3, 2007, to Dec. 1, 2010. Observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that the planet's sandy surface is more dynamic than previously thought.
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NASA via AP
A southward-looking view of the Gale Crater on Mars shows a mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate.
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NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/UA
The high-resolution imaging science experiment camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals portions of the Martian surface in unprecedented detail. This image shows channels from three to 33 feet wide on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin.
NASA
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via AP
The Mars rover Opportunity is poised to reach the rim of a vast crater to begin a fresh round of exploration. Opportunity outlasted its twin, Spirit, to continue research in July.
NASA/JPL
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via AP
An artist's rendering of the Mars Science Laboratory, a.k.a. Curiosity. The sedan-size rover can analyze rocks and soil with unprecedented accuracy and is expected to reach Mars in August 2012.
NASA
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via Reuters
In a photo released by Moscow's Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, Russian researcher Sukhrob Kamolov exits a set of windowless modules after a 520-day simulation of a flight to Mars. Kamolov was among an international all-male crew to successfully complete the experiment.
Oleg Voloshin
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Pool
NASA's Stardust craft snapped this image of comet Tempel 1, which is half the size of Manhattan. At nearest approach, Stardust passed within 112 miles of the icy body.
NASA/JPL/ Caltech/Cornell
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via AP
Photos from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory show before-and-after comparisons of comet Tempel 1, which was struck by the Deep Impact spacecraft in 2005. The left image is a composite from July 2005. The other image -- taken by the Stardust spacecraft -- has arrows identifying the rim of a crater, estimated to be 500 feet in diameter, caused by the impact.
NASA/JPL/CALTECH/CORNELL
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AP
This image of the Debussy Crater on Mercury shows bright rays consisting of impact ejecta and secondary craters.
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NASA via AP
Messenger, the first spacecraft to successfully enter Mercury's orbit, transmitted this image of the planet.
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NASA via AP
A detail of the Degas Crater on Mercury shows an impact melt coating the floor of the crater.
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NASA via AP
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows paths left by astronauts on foot as well as lunar buggy tracks from the 1972 U.S. Apollo 17 moon mission.
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NASA via AP
Space shuttle Atlantis is seen from the window of a shuttle training craft as Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center. The final shuttle launch of the space program was July 8.
Dick Clark
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NASA via AP
Atlantis's external fuel tank is released after the space shuttle's successful launch into its final mission, a 12-day journey to the international space station.
NASA
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via Getty Images
NASA electrical engineer Christian Ward with the Terrier Orion rocket payload being constructed at Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Suborbital rockets are designed to measure experiments in the ionosphere.
Linda Davidson
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The Washington Post
Assembly of the first space-bound Orion multi-purpose crew module begins at the Michoud Assembly Facility outside New Orleans. This capsule will be used during Orion's first test flight.
NASA
An artist's rendering shows Kepler-10b, the first rocky planet. At 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system.
AFP/Getty Images
An artist's rendering envisions the world on planet Kepler-16b, where two suns set over the horizon. Kepler-16b has been called the most "Tatooine-like" planet so far discovered, alluding to the home planet of Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars."
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NASA via AP
A medium-size solar flare in June, as viewed from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
NASA/SDO
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via AP
The Galileo spacecraft sent this image of Jupiter's moon Europa. Visible are plains of bright ice, cracks that run to the horizon and dark patches that likely contain ice and dirt.
NASA
The Soyuz VS01 lifts off from the Guiana Space Center in Sinnamary, French Guiana, with the first two satellites in Europe's Galileo global positioning system. The Oct. 21 launch was the first time that the Russian Soyuz lifted off from outside Soviet Union bases.
ESA/CNES/Arianespace
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Reuters
The Zenit-2SB rocket, carrying the Phobos-Grunt probe, before its launch at the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Russia's first interplanetary mission in more than two decades went awry Nov. 9 when the unmanned probe failed to head toward Mars after its launch.
Oleg Urusov
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Reuters
Orbital Science rocket scientist Les Kovacs with the Taurus II rocket he is developing at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
Linda Davidson
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The Washington Post
The Jupiter moon Europa, viewed from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.
An artist's rendering shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf 20 light years from Earth. The planet in the foreground is the newly discovered GJ 581g.
Lynette Cook
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AFP/Getty Images
Orion orbits the moon with disc-shaped solar arrays that track the sun to generate electricity.
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National Air and Space Museum
An artist's rendering of the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Engineers have been authorized to reduce the power that the 34-year-old spacecraft needs to operate by turning off the heater that keeps the fuel to the primary thrusters warm. The change is expected to extend the life of Voyager 2.
NASA
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via Reuters
NASA's Robonaut 2 -- the first dexterous humanoid robot in space -- is pictured in the Destiny laboratory of the international space station.
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NASA via AP
The Aurora Australis in an image taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the international space station.
NASA/JSC
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via Reuters
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