Artemis II mission

India landed a robot on the moon and NASA brought pieces of an asteroid back to Earth to study. A green comet illuminated night skies and a "ring of fire" eclipse captivated spectators from Oregon to Brazil. SpaceX launched nearly 100 rockets, and Japan and Europe put powerful new space telescopes into orbit.

NASA conducted a test firing of the engines for its giant Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket on Jan. 16 but they shut down earlier than planned, the space agency said.

The "hot-fire" test at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was supposed to last a little over eight minutes - the time the engines would burn in flight - but they shut down just over a minute into the burn.