2014: An amazing year in space exploration

The last 12 months saw some out-of-this-world achievements and incredible firsts – from explorations on Mars to landing on a comet. But there was tragedy too.

More amazing image galleries of the year:

The year in aviation

Weird and wonderful images seen in 2014

... and more of our favourite space stories of the year:

The Nazi rocket that launched the space age

How the Philae comet landing really unfolded

What the first space photograpers had to battle to give us out-of-this-world views

How a new solar explorer is built from dead animal bones

Are we sending aliens the right signals to contact them?

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