2013: The Year in Space (52 images)

The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency onboard at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 7, 2013. The Olympic torch was launched with the crew of Expedition 38 to the International Space Station. It will be passed from one module to the next and will go on its first spacewalk on November 9 with two Russian cosmonauts as part of its international relay. UPI/Carla Cioffi/NASA

A swing high above Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft revealed this stately view of the golden-hued planet and its main rings in an image released recently. The view is in natural color, as human eyes would have seen it. This mosaic was made from 36 images in three color filters obtained by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on October 10, 2013. The rings shown here include Saturn's main rings. The rings known as the C, B and A rings -- listed here in order of closeness to Saturn -- are easily seen. Rings were named in order of their discovery rather than their position around Saturn. UPI

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory launches aboard the Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Friday, Sept. 6, 2013. LADEE is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon where it will provide unprecedented information about the environment around the moon and give scientists a better understanding of other planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond. UPI/C. Cioffi/NASA

Astronaut candidate Christina M. Hammock successfully makes fire during wilderness training in Portland, Maine, August 28, 2013. As the first phase of their extensive training program along the way to become full-fledged astronauts, eight new ASCAN 2013 candidates spent three days in the wild participating in their wilderness survival training, near Rangeley, Maine. UPI/ L. Harnett/ NASA