2013: The Year in Space (52 images)

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft undergoes final preparations at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on September 27, 2013. MAVEN will be launched by a Atlas 5 rocket currently scheduled for a November 18, 2013 lift off. The Lockheed Martin spacecraft will orbit the planet Mars for one year after completing a ten month journey through space. The mission is to explore how the sun has effected Mars upper atmosphere and ionosphere. UPI/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell

One of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space Station used a 50mm lens to record this image of a large mass of storm clouds over the Atlantic Ocean near Brazil and the Equator on July 4, 2013. A Russian spacecraft, docked to the orbiting outpost, partially covers a small patch of sunglint on the ocean waters in a break in the clouds. UPI/ NASA

The Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft is seen as it is rolled out by train to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad, in Kazakhstan Sunday, May 26, 2013. The launch of the Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station (ISS) with Expedition 36/37 Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineers; Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, and Karen Nyberg of NASA, is scheduled for Wednesday May 29, Kazakh time. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano, will remain aboard the station until mid-November. UPI/Bill Ingalls/NASA

The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn and Russian Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in a remote area near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on May 14, 2013. Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko returned from five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 34 and 35 crews. UPI/Carla Cioffi/NASA