Today, September 16, 2010, one of NASA's most successful missions - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - completes the primary phase of its exploration mission. Far from this meaning the end of the mission, it actually means LRO can begin the next phase: science!

In honor of this milestone, I have collected a few of my favorite LRO pictures from the past year and put them together in this gallery; use the "filmstrip" at the top of this post to see them all.

We've been observing the Moon for thousands of years, but it wasn't until LRO that we started to get a comprehensive and extreme close-up view of this neighboring world. Remember, when you look at these pictures you're seeing the Moon from a camera just 50 km (30 miles) above the surface, with a resolution of half a meter (18 inches!). The exploration phase of LRO has been nothing short of amazing; what will the science phase bring?

All image credits: NASA, NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University