2021 in spaceflight
Orbital launches | |
---|---|
First | 8 January |
Last | 16 September |
Total | 91 |
Successes | 84 |
Failures | 7 |
Catalogued | 83 |
National firsts | |
Satellite |
|
Rockets | |
Maiden flights | |
Retirements | |
Crewed flights | |
Orbital | 4 |
Suborbital | 3 |
Total travellers | 25 |
EVAs | 10 |
This article documents notable spaceflight events during 2021.
Overview[]
Planetary science[]
Spacecraft from three Mars exploration programs from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States (Hope, Tianwen-1, and Mars 2020) arrived at Mars in February.
The Perseverance rover landed on 18 February. As part of the Mars 2020 mission, the Ingenuity solar-powered drone performed the first powered aircraft flight on another planet in human history. It has a communications-link with the Perseverance rover and used autonomous control during its short scripted flights.
The Tianwen-1 lander and Zhurong rover landed on 14 May, after conducting a geological survey of the landing site from orbit. Zhurong was deployed on the Martian surface on 22 May, making China the second country in history to successfully deploy a rover on Mars. The rover then dropped a remotely controlled camera on the ground, which took a group photo of the lander and rover on 1 June.
Lucy, a NASA space probe, will launch in October and begin a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids, visiting six Jupiter trojans, and one Main Belt asteroid.[1] Trojans are asteroids which share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is planned to launch in November on a Falcon 9. It is a space probe that will visit the double asteroid Didymos and demonstrate the kinetic effects of crashing an impactor spacecraft into an asteroid moon for planetary defense purposes. The mission is intended to test whether a spacecraft impact could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
The Juno probe continues its exploration of Jupiter. Originally, its mission was intended to conclude on 31 July by burning up in Jupiter's atmosphere following its 35th perijove. However, on 8 January 2021, NASA announced that the probe was granted a second mission extension through September 2025, which could include future flybys of Europa and Io.[2][3]
Lunar exploration[]
Artemis 1, the first flight of the Space Launch System and the first lunar mission for Orion, is scheduled to fly in November.
Human spaceflight[]
China began construction of the Tiangong space station (phase 3 of the Tiangong program) with the launch of the Tianhe core module on 29 April 2021. A Tianzhou cargo delivery mission was launched on 29 May 2021, and the Shenzhou 12 crewed mission on 17 June 2021.[4] Shenzhou 13 is scheduled to launch a second crew in October.[5]
In the United States, Virgin Galactic conducted the first suborbital human spaceflight from New Mexico on 22 May 2021 with SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity.[6] Two astronauts were onboard, Frederick Sturckow and David Mackay. The flight was also the first suborbital human spaceflight from Spaceport America. A second flight, carrying company founder Richard Branson and three other passengers, was conducted on 11 July 2021.[7]
The first fully automated flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital spacecraft successfully sent four civilians, including company founder Jeff Bezos, into space just above the Kármán line on 20 July 2021.[8]
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner will conduct a second uncrewed test flight in late 2021 in advance of a first crewed test flight in 2022.[9]
Space telescopes[]
The long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope, the largest optical space telescope ever built, is planned to be launched to the Sun–Earth L2 point by a European Ariane 5 rocket in November.[10]
Rocket innovation[]
The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit is expected to continue. After suborbital tests in 2020 and 2021, SpaceX plans to conduct the first orbital flight of the fully reusable Starship launch vehicle.[11][12] Multiple other companies plan to introduce smaller rockets. The maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur, designed to gradually replace Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy at lower costs, was planned for 2021 but shifted to 2022.[13]
Orbital and suborbital launches[]
Month | Num. of successes | Num. of failures |
---|---|---|
January | 7 | 0 |
February | 9 | 1 |
March | 10 | 0 |
April | 11 | 0 |
May | 9 | 1 |
June | 13 | 1 |
July | 10 | 0 |
August | 9 | 3 |
September | 6 | 1 |
October | TBD | TBD |
November | TBD | TBD |
December | TBD | TBD |
Total | 84 | 7 |
Deep-space rendezvous[]
Date (UTC) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
17 January | Parker Solar Probe | 7th perihelion | |
9 February | Emirates Mars Mission | Mars orbit insertion | Probe achieved an initial orbit around Mars of 1,000 x 49,380 km. It will spend several months modifying its orbit to 20,000 x 43,000 km.[14] |
10 February | Tianwen-1 | Mars orbit insertion | Probe achieved an initial orbit around Mars of 400 x 180,000 km. Its initial reconnaissance orbit will be 265 x 60,000 km. |
18 February | Perseverance | Mars landing | Rover successfully landed at target destination, with confirmation on Earth at 20:55 UTC. Landing was at Jezero crater, coordinates 18°26′41″N 77°27′03″E / 18.4447°N 77.4508°E. |
20 February | Parker Solar Probe | Fourth gravity assist at Venus | |
21 February | Juno | 32nd perijove of Jupiter | |
7 April | OSIRIS-REx | Begin flyby of Bennu[15] | |
15 April | Juno | 33rd perijove | |
29 April | Parker Solar Probe | 8th perihelion | |
10 May | OSIRIS-REx | Completes Bennu flyby and begins journey back to Earth[15] | |
14 May | Zhurong | Mars landing | Rover successfully landed at Utopia Planitia, coordinates 25°06′N 109°54′E / 25.1°N 109.9°E. |
7 June | Juno | 34th perijove | On the day of perijove, Juno flew by Ganymede, reducing its orbital period around Jupiter to 43 days.[2][3] |
20 July | Juno | 35th perijove | Beginning of Juno's second mission extension.[2][3] |
8 August | Solar Orbiter | Second gravity assist at Venus[16] | |
9 August | Parker Solar Probe | 9th perihelion | |
11 August | BepiColombo | Second gravity assist at Venus | |
2 October | BepiColombo | First gravity assist at Mercury | |
16 October | Parker Solar Probe | Fifth gravity assist at Venus | |
21 November | Parker Solar Probe | 10th perihelion | |
26 November | Solar Orbiter | Gravity assist at Earth[16] | Gravity assist will set up future fly-bys of Venus that will increase its inclination relative to the Sun. |
Extravehicular activities (EVAs)[]
Start Date/Time | Duration | End Time | Spacecraft | Crew | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 January 11:28 | 6 hours 56 minutes | 18:24 | SpaceX Crew 1 | Michael S. Hopkins |
Installation of the exposed platform Airbus Bartolomeo |
1 February 12:57 | 5 hours 20 minutes | 18:17 | SpaceX Crew 1 | Michael S. Hopkins |
Install a new lithium-ion battery on the P-4 truss, where an earlier lithium replacement blew a fuse in April 2019. Upgrade high definition video and camera gear on ISS exterior. |
28 February
11:12 |
7 hours 04 minutes | 18:16 | SpaceX Crew 1 Expedition 64 | Kathleen Rubins |
Install modification kit to prepare Station for new solar array installation. |
5 March
11:37 |
6 hours 56 minutes | 18:33 | SpaceX Crew 1 Expedition 64 | Kathleen Rubins
Soichi Noguchi |
Additional upgrades and Kibo module platform work |
13 March
13:14 |
6 hours 47 minutes | 20:01 | SpaceX Crew 1 | Michael Hopkins |
P6 fixes and installations |
2 June
05:53 |
7 hours 19 minutes | 13:12 | Expedition 65 | Oleg Novitsky |
Second in a series of spacewalks to decommission the Pirs Airlock which is scheduled to be replaced by Nauka in the summer of 2021. Task involve installing a flow control valve on Zarya, removing docking antennas and their cables on Pirs, removing EVA gap spanners from Pirs, transferring experiments over to Poisk, installing Test containers on the hatches, and relocating a Strela crane over to Poisk. Getahead task involve cleaning the windows on the Russian segment, and doing an inspection of Zvezda and plugging any leaks they find.[17][18] |
16 June
12:11 |
7 hours 15 minutes | 19:26 | SpaceX Crew-2 | Shane Kimbrough
Thomas Pesquet |
First in a series of spacewalks to install the iROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. While working on releasing the arrays from their launch carrier, Kimbrough's spacesuit experienced issues with its Display and Control Module (DCM), so he was sent back to the airlock to connect to station umbilicals to restart it. The restart was successful, although it delayed the EVA. Additionally, an issue was discovered with his suit's sublimator, which threatened to end the EVA prematurely; this was determined to be a false reading, allowing work to resume. Following this, the astronauts successfully released the solar arrays and installed them on the P6 mounting bracket. A subsequent attempt to unfold the two rolled arrays, which were folded side-by-side during launch, failed due to interference (blockage) from a structure near the mounting area. As the EVA was then past the six-hour mark, ground controllers instructed the astronauts to finish securing the array structure to the station, photograph the work site, and return to the airlock. The next steps of unfolding the array pair, making electrical connections, and unfurling the rolled arrays were postponed to a future EVA pending ground analysis of the interference issue |
20 June
11:42 |
6 hours 28 minutes | 18:10 | SpaceX Crew-2 | Shane Kimbrough
Thomas Pesquet |
Second in a series of spacewalks that will install the iROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. The spacewalkers managed to connect iROSA with a little elbow grease and at 16:40 hours deployed it and it is receiving power. |
25 June
11:52 |
6 hours 45 minutes | 18:37 | SpaceX Crew-2 | Shane Kimbrough
Thomas Pesquet |
Third in a series of spacewalks that will install the ROSA solar arrays on the P6 Truss. If time allows the astronauts will also route cables to the Russian segment and install a WiFi router on the truss. |
4 July
00:11 |
6 hours 46 minutes | 06:57 | Shenzhou 12
TSS Tianhe |
Liu Boming |
First China spacewalk since Shenzhou 7 in 2008. Installation work was done on the exterior of the Tiangong space station.[19] |
20 August
00:38 |
5 hours 55 minutes | 06:33 | Shenzhou 12
TSS Tianhe |
Nie Haisheng |
Second EVA of Shenzhou 12 crew to install foot stops and a workbench on the station’s large robotic arm, a pump set for its thermal control system, and additional work on the panoramic camera.[20] |
3 September
14:35 |
6 hours 50 minutes (Planned) | TBD | Expedition 65 | Oleg Novitsky |
First in a series of spacewalks to outfit Nauka. The cosmonauts will route cables which were recently temp stowed on PMA 1 along Zarya to the Zvezda transfer compartment where they will be mated to Nauka. The spacewalk will conclude with the installation of handrails and the first experiments on the new module. If time allows the cosmonauts will change Biorisk containers and will retrieve and replace two exposure experiments from Poisk and bring them inside. |
9 September
15:00 |
5 hours (Planned) | TBD | Expedition 65 | Oleg Novitsky |
Second in a series of spacewalks to outfit Nauka. The cosmonauts will connect Kurs and TORU telemetry cables and deploy and stow docking targets and antennas. They will also remove and dispose of covers on the Rassvet module and swap grapple fixtures and docking targets to relocate the Nauka science airlock, the primary radiator, and the boom of the European Robotic Arm (ERA) over to Nauka for installation. They will also remove launch locks and covers from Nauka so the European arm can be deployed and the items transferred from Rassvet can be installed. |
12 September
12:30 |
6 hours 30 minutes | TBD | SpaceX Crew-2 | Akihiko Hoshide
Thomas Pesquet |
Install the 3B modification kit on the P4 Truss for the arrival of SpaceX CRS-24 with the final portside IROSA solar arrays. Install a wifi router on the truss, and route and mate cables on the US side of PMA 1 to power up the Nauka module. Replace a Floating Point Measuring Unit and a Static Charge Micrometer external component on the S1 Truss to prepare the port side for it long term configuration. |
Orbital launch statistics[]
By country[]
For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.
Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures |
Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
China | 33 | 31 | 2 | 0 | ||
Europe | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||
India | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
Russia | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | Includes European Soyuz launches from Kourou, French Guiana by Arianespace | |
United States | 37 | 34 | 3 | 0 | Includes Electron launches from Mahia | |
World | 91 | 84 | 7 | 0 |
By rocket[]
- Antares 230+
- Ariane 5
- Atlas V
- Electron
- Falcon 9 new
- Falcon 9 reused
- Falcon Heavy
- H-IIA
- Kuaizhou 1A
- Kuaizhou 11
- LauncherOne
- Long March 2
- Long March 3
- Long March 4
- Long March 5
- Long March 6
- Long March 7
- Long March 8
- Long March 11
- Soyuz-2 (Russia)
- Soyuz-ST (Europe)
- PSLV
- GSLV Mk II
- GSLV Mk III
- SSLV
- Proton-M
- Vega
- Others
By family[]
showFamily | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By type[]
showRocket | Country | Family | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By configuration[]
showRocket | Country | Type | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|
By spaceport[]
Site | Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baikonur | Kazakhstan | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
Cape Canaveral | United States | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | |
Jiuquan | China | 13 | 11 | 2 | 0 | |
Kennedy | United States | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
Kourou | France | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
Mahia | New Zealand | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
MARS | United States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
Mojave | United States | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
PSCA | United States | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
Plesetsk | Russia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
Satish Dhawan | India | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
Semnan | Iran | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
Taiyuan | China | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
Vandenberg | United States | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | |
Vostochny | Russia | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
Wenchang | China | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
Xichang | China | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 91 | 84 | 7 | 0 |
By orbit[]
- Transatmospheric
- Low Earth
- Low Earth (ISS)
- Low Earth (CSS)
- Low Earth (SSO)
- Low Earth (retrograde)
- Medium Earth
- Molniya
- Geosynchronous
- Inclined GSO
- High Earth
- Lunar transfer
- Heliocentric
Orbital regime | Launches | Achieved | Not achieved | Accidentally achieved |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transatmospheric | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Low Earth / Sun-synchronous | 76 | 70 | 6 | 0 | Including flights to ISS and Tiangong |
Geosynchronous / GTO | 13 | 12 | 1 | 0 | |
Medium Earth / Molniya | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
High Earth / Lunar transfer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Heliocentric orbit / Planetary transfer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 91 | 84 | 7 | 0 |
Suborbital launch statistics[]
By country[]
For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of suborbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. Flights intended to fly below 80 km (50 mi) are omitted.
Country | Launches | Successes | Failures | Partial failures |
Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Brazil | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
Canada | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | ||
China | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | ||
France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
India | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
Iran | 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 | ||
Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||
Pakistan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
Russia | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
South Korea | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
Taiwan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
Turkey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
United States | 38 | 37 | 1 | 0 | ||
Ukraine | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
Yemen | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
World | 98 | 96 | 2 | 0 |
Expected maiden flights[]
Heavy/super heavy-lift vehicles[]
- Starship – SpaceX – USA (maiden orbital flight)
- Space Launch System – NASA – USA
Medium-lift vehicles[]
Small-lift vehicles[]
- SSLV – ISRO – India[citation needed]
- Hyperbola-2 – i-Space – China [1]
- New Line 1 – LinkSpace – China [2]
- Tianlong – Space Pioneer – China [3]
- Xingtu-1 – – China [4]
- Nebula-1 – Deep Blue Aerospace – China[22]
- ZK-1A – – China [5]
- HAPITH I – TiSPACE – Taiwan [6]
- Neptune – Interorbital Systems – USA [7]
- RS1 – ABL Space Systems – USA [8]
- Sleek Eagle – – USA – [9]
- – USA [10]
- Spyder – UP Aerospace – USA [11]
- EcoRocket – ARCAspace – Romania [12]
Suborbital vehicles[]
- Miura 1 – PLD Space – Spain
- PD AeroSpace[citation needed] – Japan
See also[]
- Timeline of Solar System exploration#2020s
Notes[]
- ^ Clockwise from top:
- Self-portrait of Mars 2020 containing the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter located near the Van Zyl Overlook (7 April 2021). On April 19, 2021, Ingenuity successfully completed the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet besides Earth, taking off vertically, hovering and landing.
- The James Webb Space Telescope is set to launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in 2021.
- Launch of SpaceX Starship prototype SN15 on 5 May 2021 at SpaceX's development facility near Boca Chica, Texas. SN15 was the first testbed of the future rocket family to survive a launch and soft touchdown.
References[]
- ^ Hille, Karl (21 October 2019). "NASA's Lucy Mission Clears Critical Milestone". NASA. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Talbert, Tricia (8 January 2021). "NASA Extends Exploration for Two Planetary Science Missions". NASA. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "NASA's Juno Mission Expands Into the Future". NASA.gov. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
- ^ Garcia, Carlos; Wang, Shubing (18 June 2021). "Chinese astronauts board space station module in historic mission". Reuters. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ Jones, Andrew (13 April 2021). "China preparing Tianzhou-2 cargo mission to follow upcoming space station launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- ^ "Virgin Galactic Completes First Human Spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico". Virgin Galactic. 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ Foust, Jeff (11 July 2021). "Branson flies to edge of space on SpaceShipTwo". SpaceNews. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
- ^ Wall, Mike (20 July 2021). "Jeff Bezos launches into space on Blue Origin's 1st astronaut flight". Space.com. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
- ^ Foust, Jeff (13 August 2021). "Starliner test flight faces months-long delay". SpaceNews. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
- ^ "NASA Announces New James Webb Space Telescope Target Launch Date". NASA (Press release). 16 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ Clark, Stephen (1 September 2020). "Elon Musk offers update on SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- ^ "Starship". nextspaceflight.com. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ "ULA's maiden Vulcan flight delayed to 2022 due to payload readiness". 18 June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
- ^ Gebhardt, Chris (9 February 2021). "UAE makes history as Al-Amal arrives at Mars for two-year mission". NASASpaceflight.com.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "NASA's OSIRIS-REx to Fly a Farewell Tour of Bennu". 8 February 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Solar Orbiter: Mission Operations". 26 January 2020.
- ^ "События. Выход в открытый космос 2 июня" [Spacewalk June 2]. www.roscosmos.ru. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
- ^ john.l.stoll@nasa.gov (1 June 2021), jsc2021m000163_Russian_Spacewalk_48_Animation, retrieved 1 June 2021
- ^ Corbett, Tobias (4 July 2021). "Taikonauts complete second Chinese spacewalk, first in support of Space Station construction". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ Jones, Andrew (20 August 2021). "Astronauts conduct second Chinese space station spacewalk". SpaceNews. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
- ^ Largest private rocket to be launched in 2021, says developer | Nation | China Daily
- ^ Chinese space firm launches and lands small test rocket, SpaceNews, 2 August 2021.
External links[]
Spaceflight portal
- Bergin, Chris. "NASASpaceFlight.com".
- Clark, Stephen. "Spaceflight Now".
- Kelso, T.S. "Satellite Catalog (SATCAT)". CelesTrak.
- Krebs, Gunter. "Chronology of Space Launches".
- Kyle, Ed. "Space Launch Report".
- McDowell, Jonathan. "Jonathan's Space Report".
- Pietrobon, Steven. "Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive".
- Wade, Mark. "Encyclopedia Astronautica".
- Webb, Brian. "Southwest Space Archive".
- Zak, Anatoly. "Russian Space Web".
- "ISS Calendar". Spaceflight 101.
- "NSSDCA Master Catalog". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- "Space Calendar". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- "Space Information Center". JAXA.
- "Хроника освоения космоса" [Chronicle of space exploration]. CosmoWorld (in Russian).
- 2021 in spaceflight
- Spaceflight by year
- 2021-related lists