SpaceX



SpaceX

Kremlin

ISRO

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance

XInhua

SpaceX

United Launch Alliance

Blue Origin

NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA/Bill Ingalls

Arianespace

It has been quite a year for rocket launches—to say nothing of landings. As we approach the end of 2016, Ars thought it might be worthwhile to revisit the year in rockets, from attention-getting SpaceX launches to less appreciated but still impressive liftoffs from Russia, Kazakhstan, China, and elsewhere.

In our view, the most picturesque rocket launch came in June, when United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy rocket hefted a US spy satellite into space. The Delta IV, the most powerful rocket in operation with a capacity of 28.4 tons to low-Earth orbit, blasted off from Florida under sunny skies and looked like something Vincent van Gogh might have painted had he lived in the 21st century.

After Blue Origin and SpaceX both landed their rockets vertically on land at the end of 2015—the first time anyone had ever done so—we saw the growth of this new industry in 2016. Blue Origin landed four more times in West Texas this year, and SpaceX upped the ante by landing its orbital Falcon 9 booster on a barge, in the Atlantic Ocean. And then it did so two more times. Perhaps for an encore we will finally see the company's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket fly in 2017, along with a spectacular triple landing of its three cores.













SpaceX

SpaceX

Blue Origin

But enough with the words. This is one instance where the pictures tell the whole story.

Listing image by SpaceX