This was the moment we heard that our probe New Horizons had made its closest approach to Pluto, after nine years and three billion miles. The spacecraft had sent its ping back to Earth, saying: it got the gold. Then it would have gone back to make more measurements, doing great science.  You can’t joystick an operation like this from Earth. You can’t say, “Oh, that looks interesting, let’s go take a look”; you have to let the mission make all the observations. What a lot of people don’t realise is that we didn’t know where Pluto was. Its orbit around the sun is 248 Earth years and Pluto was discovered in 1930, so in that time it hasn’t made a complete orbit. Between 1930 and 2015, you could draw a whole family of orbits. But it turned out that concern wasn’t too big of a deal: the predictions were really great.  The other part was, we didn’t know the spacecraft was going to survive. Since the darned thing was launched in January 2006, we’ve discovered all these other moons, and some are really small. We didn’t know if there was impact debris, if there were things accreting on these objects; something the size of a grain of rice would knock us off course.  We planned to pass between Pluto and [its moon] Charon, on the basis that that would sweep up all the pieces; it’s huge, it has extensive gravity, and the debris would fall on it naturally. This was where we hoped to get high-resolution data – and we turned out to be right. We’re still bringing back spectacular images. It could be the Antarctic: there’s a mountain range, an ice cap – it’s phenomenal; that’s a young planetary surface right there.  I came to HQ in 2006, right after New Horizons launched, and I’ve been living and breathing this, along with several other missions – to Mars, our moon, other places – but this was the one. It was also uniquely American, which is why we all have flags. There were more women involved in this mission than any other I’ve worked on: around half the team. We made it look easy, and it wasn’t.  This was taken at 9.30, 9.45pm. I was exhausted, but I stuck around for another hour or so, to check all the commands had uplinked. Did I celebrate? I like red wine, but I’m not much of a drinker. And the next set of data would be coming in soon.  I often think, wouldn’t it be funny to have a pop at that person. It tends to be people in the public eye who I think need bringing back down to earth. So I had this little idea: wouldn’t it be funny if I pretended I was bribing Sepp Blatter?  It transpired he’d be at Fifa HQ on this day, and it seemed a good opportunity. There are always different challenges to my stunts – I had recently got on stage with Kanye West at Glastonbury – but in essence it’s about being able to get in somewhere you’re not supposed to be. I can’t say too much about how I did it at Fifa, though, because it’s part of an ongoing criminal investigation.  I was waiting for the press conference to start, tapping away on my phone, to make out that I was a journalist, when Blatter came in. It was my now or never moment. I handed Sepp a wad of cash and said something like, “I’m delighted to announce to everyone that this is sealing the deal between Fifa and North Korea for 2026.”  Then he started shouting, “Security!” and, as the guards came towards me, I threw the little bundle of money I’d hung on to up in the air, thinking it would make quite a good picture – it was real money, all my own. They took me into this Bond-style lair under Fifa, and coppers turned up with guns. One said, “Right, first of all, here’s all your money back.” I think they were petrified I was going to sue them for stealing it.  I had no idea if anyone outside would even have heard of what I’d done, but I got an inkling it had gone down positively when one of the policemen showed me the website of a Swiss paper – it was headline news. I think he was almost proud of me.  It got a lot of support from around the world, particularly in South America, where they’ve had a lot of trouble with corruption in football. I even had an email from a football museum in America asking me for one of the notes, so they could frame it, but I’d spent a lot of it on Toblerones in duty free and changed the rest back.  I’m still waiting to hear what’s going to happen with my criminal investigation; I’m hoping they’ll decide there are bigger problems within Fifa right now. But, equally, I’m not thinking of Zurich for my next holiday.  Simon Brodkin is now on tour as Lee Nelson in Suited And Booted; leenelson.com for details.  Our team had just watched Caitlyn’s interview with Diane Sawyer, and we were in awe of her courage, so I was honoured and excited to help. I knew the athletes in the room would respect her for her willingness to educate people, and give hope to so many transgender people in our society.  I met her for the first time that evening, and she struck me as someone who was fearless. The main thing I remember about the actual moment of presenting the award was wanting to help her with her dress, so she didn’t fall on the steps. We hugged and I congratulated her, and thanked her for her courage.  It’s been a good year for me, too, winning the World Cup. We’re very aware that the rest of the world is trying to catch up and get the support we receive in the US for women’s soccer. One of the best things about that tournament was the attention and support that England received from their fans – they had a terrific run and the English people were up all night following their games. We’re very proud of the growth of the game all over the world, and the level of play reflects it.  I sensed it before I saw it: something passed by me just moments before it came at me. I was about to start making my way down the break, to get in a better position to catch a wave, when the shark thrashed in my direction. I quickly pulled my feet up and the shark got caught in my leg rope. It started pulling me under water, and then separated me from my board. It might have been trying to swim away, but it was between me and my board, and still caught in my leg rope. I was just swinging my arms, trying to keep it away from me. Then my leg rope broke and my board drifted away from me, so I started swimming for the beach.  I’m not sure if it was following, but that was the scariest moment. I was just waiting for it to take my legs, so I turned around and swam backwards, so I could see it coming. The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds, from when I saw it until I was on the back of the jetski. But it felt like an eternity, especially when I was swimming for the beach.  I went surfing again a week later. I knew if I put it off, it would get more difficult to get back on the board. It felt great. Now, five months on, I’ve got a greater appreciation for being able-bodied. Obviously a lot of people don’t survive encounters like that, and if they do, they have horrific injuries. I’m a little jumpy when I see shadows in the water, but other than that, I’m all good.  We were in the middle of the sea and the boat was sinking, and I thought for a moment that I would lose my family, my wife, my whole life, all at once. But we were close to Kos, where we were helped ashore by journalists. I was overcome by tears and happiness at the same time; I was almost unconscious. God saved us from that boat.  This picture still pains me, because it reminds me of the tragedies I have seen, the death we saw. I feel pain: it is the pain of all refugees. Our lives had been ruined back home.  Today, my children are taking lectures and courses in German and we are working on our residency. From when we came to Berlin until now, we have been living in a room with six beds. Our situation is difficult, and we are tired, overcome by paperwork.  When we were in Iraq, we worried about explosions, fighting, shakedowns; here, though, we find ourselves worried about our papers, what to study, how to find work. My children want to learn the language of the country we live in, and they need to learn to coexist. Europe is of course safe and stable, and my children’s future will be good. People dream of Europe, but it now has refugees from all over the world. We were placed in a camp for 1,000 people, but which housed more than 5,000.  I am still not sure I made the right, hasty decision to leave by boat. We have been in limbo for five months. Of course, the danger in Iraq and Syria was major, whether from explosions or airstrikes. My children were traumatised, but now they are both happy and sad. They are safe, but all of us, from my youngest Nour, who is seven, to 18-year-old Mustafa have been living for months in just one room. We feel like inmates in a large open prison. We are tired, and we don’t know what will happen to us.  Still, I want to send a message to the whole world, to thank them for caring for refugees and for looking after us. I thank God that there are people who care about the world’s tragedies. And to those who want to leave their country, take your time. Think about it.  Returning to Ferguson a year after Michael Brown died, I realised we had created a national dialogue – not just about why black people are being killed at disproportionate rates, but around the concept, Black Lives Matter. We protested outside the headquarters of Enterprise Holdings, which owns private prisons. I am an Enterprise Holdings scholar at Washington University in St Louis, and they paid thousands of dollars to send me to college; but when I found out about the company, I felt like I had been given the money off the backs of all the young black men who are being incarcerated. I also felt helpless: if I give the money back, I can’t go to school – I’m the first in my family to go.  So I decided to “use the master’s tool to dismantle the master’s house”. I want to use my education to help end systems that benefit from marginalised black people. The sign I’m holding in the photograph read, “Charity does not = system change.” I was holding packs of noodles that they charge prisoners $1 for. You can buy a whole box of them for a couple of dollars at the store. I asked the cops if they wanted to buy them. They didn’t answer, and they wouldn’t look me in the eye.  We need more discussion. The Black Lives Matter movement does not hate all cops, or think that all cops are bad; it is just saying that we don’t like the system that allows some cops to kill black boys and girls and get away with it.  I remember it was such a hot day. It was exhausting. People would try to run us over with their cars, or push us out of the way. I usually keep pacing back and forth, because I have a lot of energy, but that day I had to try to stay in one place. But it was also very uplifting.  I will always remember the police in Ferguson in their army gear, with their tanks set up as if they would shoot people. They were angry. They made it seem like we were criminals, and wrong for being upset about this black boy being shot and nothing being done about it. I encountered the tear gas. It was hard. You can’t breathe. Your eyes are burning, and it’s one of the worst feelings ever, because you can’t get away from it.  I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be an activist, and to advocate for change. The more people who show up and lend their voices and bodies to the movement, the more credence we have. But I’ve also learned that there’s another power in organising and being part of the community. The bills that are being passed, the legislators that are elected, this matters. I now serve on committees at college trying to get more students of colour and of low incomes into the school. I plan on going to law school and then running for office. I want to work my way up to the US Senate.  The person on the Segway obviously lost control by mistake, and I was taken by surprise. I didn’t see him coming at all – it is not something that happens too often at a track meet – but fortunately I was not hurt. We met up the next day, he apologised and asked if I was OK. Thanks to the video, it went viral – that’s the beauty of the internet.  It was my first World Cup, so I was already nervous about our opening game, but there was the added pressure of playing South Africa. I tried to focus on my role in the team, rather than thinking too much about the Springboks, or it would have affected my game.  When I got the nod to go on from Eddie [Jones, the Japan coach, and now England’s new head coach, in the 79th minute], he told me to get my hands on the ball as many times as I could. So the little time I had on the pitch was spent frantically trying to find it.  Just before I scored, as I was diving for the line, I kept thinking, “Don’t drop the ball.” When I crossed the line, I knew straight away that something amazing had happened. It was an unbelievable moment to be part of. The roar from the crowd, and the whole atmosphere in the stadium, was perfect. I was happy just to be selected for the squad, so to score the winning try was the highlight of my career.  We did so well because we prepared well: nearly seven months together with very few breaks. A lot of sacrifices were made during that time, particularly from those players with families, but it gave us an edge.  For such an incredible occasion, we didn’t really celebrate afterwards; it was about as minimal as you can get, mostly because we had to play Scotland a few days later. But we did have a team dinner at the hotel, a few beers, and friends and families joined us.  Brighton was a beautiful place to be based – it was nice to be close to the sea, and we used it for recovery sessions. We had plenty of time to walk around the town. The people were so friendly: a couple of the boys were offered free haircuts; we were even offered free tattoos.  Life hasn’t changed too much for me since the World Cup, but there has been a bit of a boom for rugby in Japan. Perfect timing, considering the next World Cup will be held here. Other than that, it’s business as usual playing for my club, the Manakata Sanix Blues.  I had applied for a summer job as a film extra, but it turned out that was a cover for the real job, which was as a steward for Banksy’s theme park. I started work a week before it opened at the end of August, and stayed until it closed on 27 September. I’m 18, and a window cleaner.  Here, I’m standing in front of the Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit, where his books were burned every day, but I worked all over the site. The most popular attraction was the Astronauts’ Caravan, which spun around. My job was essentially to make the public feel as disappointed and bored as possible. Our brief was simple: don’t smile, laugh or be happy for five weeks, and make sure you say “end-joy”, rather than “enjoy”, to the visitors. Did they have a good time? They hated it. And the whole experience made me even more depressed than I was when I started. But it was a hit: so boring, it was good.  I’ve always had a vague interest in politics, but it was pretty vague until I came across Nigel and Ukip. I’d started hearing a lot about him before the election, that he was a misogynist, racist, fascist – basically everybody thought he was a horrible person. I turned on the TV one night and he was on, and I thought, “I’ll just watch this man and see for myself.”  It was a lightbulb moment. I saw myself in him. It seemed to me that he was being bullied on national television, and I know what that’s like: I’ve been bullied myself. I felt the need to do something in support.  It had to be something extreme, to achieve notoriety. I knew a tattoo would get attention, and I’d get him to sign it after. I grabbed a few pictures of his face off the internet and took them along to the tattoo parlour. I knew the lady already, because she’d done the one on my other arm, which is of Robert Smith from the Cure. I used to follow them around.  I went to the Ukip conference in Doncaster in the hope of meeting Nigel, and by chance our paths crossed in the conference lobby. I shouted out his name, then we both just cracked up, laughing. It is hilarious, isn’t it, having someone’s face tattooed on your arm? He tried to make me feel more comfortable by joking about it. He asked, “Is it one of those things you regret later?” And I said, “Yeah, about now”, which he laughed at.  We also had a private meeting. I took along two other members of my branch. I didn’t really get to say everything I wanted to – I’m shy, and so is Nigel. He has this habit of staring right into your eyes and I couldn’t really handle it.  Through watching him speak, Nigel has given me confidence. I left my job as an engineer to become a political activist. I’m also a member of the Women’s Equality Party now, and part of the Leave The EU campaign. I think there’s an idea I’m just some sort of comedy character, but I’m not. I’ve had a tough life, and the only thing I can do is try to change it. I think I dealt with the limelight well. I stood up for something, and I’m proud of that.  Jeremy Corbyn has been my MP my whole life, and when he started running for the leadership, I knew I had to get involved and try and help. I had just finished my A-levels, so I had the whole summer free, more or less. I went to the campaign office as much as I could – almost every day – and it was amazing to see the support for Jeremy grow. We ended up having to move to a bigger office.  This is probably one of my favourite pictures, and I have amazing memories of that day. The sun was shining and it was such a good feeling, that everything we’d hoped for and given our summers to had come to this moment, with Jeremy walking into the Brighton conference centre to make his speech as Labour leader.  My personal memories of this moment are of being very, very nervous, because I knew I was going to have to introduce Jeremy’s speech, so I feel like my smile is very much fixed in that photograph. I just kept thinking, “Oh my God, I don’t want this walk to end.”  All of the people in that picture got really involved in the campaign and fully believed in Jeremy from the start. Someone said on TV – I think it was Andrew Neil – that Jeremy had met us only two minutes before the photo was taken, but that’s not true. I’ve known him my whole life, and everyone else in the photograph had met him multiple times through different campaigns, or the leadership campaign itself. I think the photograph represents the fact that Jeremy gave hope to lots of young people.  Obviously things have happened since, and it hasn’t been an easy ride, but I still believe in everything we worked for this summer, and in everything that Jeremy believes in and wants to bring to the Labour party. The photograph captures a great moment and reminds me of what we achieved, and what we can achieve in the future.
The people in the images of the year, including the first Pluto fly-by and moving stories from Europe’s refugee crisis