The coolest new space pictures: March 2024

Seven up, four down. This past month saw a flurry of personnel rotations at the International Space Station, with the arrival of two crew vehicles and the departure of one.

The bustle began on March 3, when the four-person Crew-8 mission launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon from Kennedy Space Center, Florida:

Crew-8 launch
Crew-8 launch A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft launches NASA's Crew-8 mission on March 3, 2024. The spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.Image: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

This temporarily brought the number of people aboard the station up to 11:

Expedition 70 crew portrait
Expedition 70 crew portrait The four SpaceX Crew-8 members (front row) join the Expedition 70 crew (back row) for welcome remarks shortly after docking and entering the International Space Station on March 5, 2024. In the front row (from left) are SpaceX Crew-8 members Jeanette Epps from NASA, Alexander Grebenkin from Roscosmos, and NASA astronauts Mike Barratt and Matthew Dominick. In the back row (from left) are Expedition 70 crewmates Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Loral O’Hara from NASA, Nikolai Chub from Roscosmos, Jasmin Moghbeli from NASA, Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency), and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Konstantin Borisov.

On March 12, a SpaceX Dragon carrying the Crew-7 mission members came home, riding a trail of flame en route to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico:

Crew-7 Dragon returns to Earth
Crew-7 Dragon returns to Earth The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft streaks across the sky carrying NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov before splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 2024. The crew returned after nearly six months in space as part of Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station.Image: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Finally, on March 23, a three-person crew launched to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle:

Expedition 71 crew launches
Expedition 71 crew launches A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station carrying Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya on March 23, 2024.Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Here are some other pictures that got our attention this month:

Jupiter's storms from Hubble
Jupiter's storms from Hubble The Hubble Space Telescope captured these two images of Jupiter across two days in January 2024, capturing both sides of the giant planet thanks to its rapid rate of rotation. The images show a large number of storms, giving insight into the overall activity taking place in Jupiter's atmosphere. The moon Io is visible to the left of Jupiter in the Jan. 6 image.Image: NASA / ESA / J. DePasquale (STScI) / A. Simon (NASA-GSFC).
Starship in space
Starship in space SpaceX's Starship vehicle is seen above the Earth from an onboard camera during its third test flight on March 14, 2024.Image: SpaceX
Europa Clipper message from Earth
Europa Clipper message from Earth NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a two-sided triangular plate that honors the mission's connection to Earth. One side of the plate (left) features U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's handwritten "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa," the Drake Equation, and a portrait of planetary scientist Ron Greeley, whose early efforts to develop a Europa mission two decades ago laid the foundation for Europa Clipper. The other side of the plate (right) features waveforms that are visual representations of the sound waves formed by the word "water" in 103 languages.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Edited by The Planetary Society
Perseverance views Phobos transit (2024)
Perseverance views Phobos transit (2024) NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture the silhouette of Phobos, one of the two Martian moons, as it passed in front of the Sun on Feb. 8, 2024. NASA released the image on March 6, 2024. This is one of several transits of Phobos that NASA's Mars rovers have captured. By comparing the various recordings, scientists can refine their understanding of the potato-shaped moon's orbit, learning how it's changing. Eons from now, Phobos' orbit is expected to eventually send the moon toward the Red Planet's surface.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI
JWST images star-forming region NGC 604
JWST images star-forming region NGC 604 This image from JWST's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows star-forming region NGC 604, located in the Triangulum galaxy, 2.73 million light-years away from Earth. It provides an opportunity for astronomers to study a high concentration of very young, massive stars in a relatively nearby region.Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI