This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2021. 2021 saw several spaceflight related records being set worldwide. This includes both the most orbital launch attempts and most successful orbital launches in a year. In addition, 2021 saw records set in the number of humans in orbit at one time and the most humans in space at one time.
Overview
Planetary science
Spacecraft from three Mars exploration programs from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States (
Hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
,
Tianwen-1
-1 (TW-1; zh, t=, s=, l='Heavenly Questions') is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, rem ...
, and
Mars 2020
Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover ''Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from Ear ...
) arrived at Mars in February.
The ''
Perseverance
Perseverance may refer to:
Behaviour
* Psychological resilience
* Perseverance of the saints, a Protestant Christian teaching
* Assurance (theology)
Geography
* Perseverance, Queensland, a locality in Australia
* Perseverance Island, Seychelles
...
'' 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
-1 (TW-1; zh, t=, s=, l='Heavenly Questions') is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, rem ...
'' lander and ''
Zhurong
Zhurong (), also known as Chongli (), is an important personage in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion. According to the '' Huainanzi'' and the philosophical texts of Mozi and his followers, Zhurong is a god of fire and of the south.
Th ...
'' 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
Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...
, a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
space probe
A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ent ...
, was launched on 16 October and began a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids, visiting six
Jupiter trojan
The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange poin ...
s, and one
Main Belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
. Trojans are asteroids which share
Jupiter's orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
around the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet.
The
Double Asteroid Redirection Test
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was designed to assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its transfer ...
(DART) was launched on 24 November. It is a
space probe
A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ent ...
that will visit the
double asteroid
A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common barycenter. The binary nature of 243 Ida was discovered when the Galileo spacecraft flew by the asteroid in 1993. Since then numerous binary asteroids and several triple ast ...
Didymos and demonstrate the kinetic effects of crashing an impactor spacecraft into an
asteroid moon
A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. , there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons (and binary objects, in general) are important ...
for
planetary defense
Asteroid impact avoidance comprises the methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted away, preventing destructive impact events. An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs ...
purposes. The mission is intended to test whether a spacecraft impact could successfully
deflect an asteroid on a collision course with
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
.
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
Europa may refer to:
Places
* Europe
* Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace
* Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro
* Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development
* Europa Cliff ...
and
Io.
Lastly the Tianwen-1 orbiter released another
deployable camera in Mars orbit on 31 December 2021, to image itself and Northern Mars Ice Cap from Mars orbit.
Lunar exploration
China's
Chang'e-4 lander and
Yutu-2
''Yutu-2'' is the robotic lunar rover component of CNSA's Chang'e 4 mission to the Moon, launched on 7 December 2018 18:23 UTC, it entered lunar orbit on 12 December 2018 before making the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 J ...
rover reached 1000-days milestone on the
far side of the Moon
The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the Near side of the Moon, near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is ru ...
while still being operational.
Human spaceflight
The first feature-length fiction film to be filmed in space by professional film-makers, the Russian film ''
The Challenge'' was filmed onboard ISS in October 2021 by Russian director
Klim Shipenko
Klim Alekseevich Shipenko (russian: Клим Алексеевич Шипенко; born 16 June 1983) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, actor and producer.
Career
Filming in outer space
In 2021, Shipenko shot portions of a science ficti ...
with actress
Yulia Peresild starring.
A new record was set for the largest number of humans in orbit (14) on 16 September 2021, and a new record for the largest number of humans in space (19) at one time (10 in the ISS, 3 on board the Tiangong Space Station, 6 on board New Shepard-19) was set on 11 December 2021.
Space Stations
China began construction of the
Tiangong space station (phase 3 of the
Tiangong program
The Tiangong program () is China's space program to create a modular space station, comparable to Mir. This program is independent and unconnected to any other international space-active countries. The program is part of the China Manned Spac ...
) with the launch of the
Tianhe core module
''Tianhe'' (), officially the ''Tianhe'' core module (), is the first module to launch of the Tiangong space station. It was launched into orbit on 29 April 2021, as the first launch of the final phase of Tiangong program, part of the Ch ...
on 29 April 2021. A
Tianzhou cargo delivery mission was launched on 29 May 2021, and the
Shenzhou 12
Shenzhou 12 (, see § Etymology) was a Chinese spaceflight launched on 17 June 2021. The flight marked the seventh crewed Chinese spaceflight and the twelfth flight of the Shenzhou program. The spacecraft carried three members of the People's ...
crewed mission on 17 June 2021.
Shenzhou 13
Shenzhou 13 () was a Chinese spaceflight launched on 15 October 2021 at 16:23 UTC. The flight marked the eighth crewed Chinese spaceflight and the thirteenth flight of the Shenzhou program. The spacecraft carried three People's Liberation Army ...
has launched a second crew on 15 October and conducted their first EVA on 7 November, making
Wang Yaping
Wang Yaping (; born January 1980) is a Chinese military transport pilot and taikonaut. Wang was the second female taikonaut selected to the People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps, the second Chinese woman in space, and the first Chinese ...
the first Chinese female astronaut to perform a spacewalk.
The
ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...
saw one module being permanently removed from the orbiting complex and two new modules being added. ''
Pirs'' became the first habitable element of the station to be decommissioned, undocked, and deorbited on 26 July 2021 to make room for ''
Nauka'', the first new module in the
Russian Orbital Segment
The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed in Russia and operated by the Russian Roscosmos. The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station. ...
of ISS (indeed, first new module for the whole of ISS) in years. The Russian made ''Nauka'' module was launched from
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
on 21 July 2021. ''Nauka'' carried the
European Robotic Arm
The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is a robotic arm that is attached
the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) of the International Space Station. Launched to the ISS in July 2021; it is the first robotic arm that is able to work on the Russian Segment of ...
(ERA) along with it to the station. The ISS was also joined by a new Russian node module ''
Prichal'', launched 24 November 2021.
Space tourism
In the United States,
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company i ...
conducted the first suborbital human spaceflight from
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
on 22 May 2021 with
SpaceShipTwo
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShipTwo is car ...
VSS Unity
VSS ''Unity'' (Virgin Space Ship Unity, Registration: N202VG), previously referred to as VSS ''Voyager'', is a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane. It is the second ''SpaceShipTwo'' to be built and is part of the V ...
. Two astronauts were on board,
Frederick Sturckow
Frederick Wilford Sturckow (born August 11, 1961) is an engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot. Sturckow is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. He flew on STS-88 and STS-1 ...
and
David Mackay. The flight was also the first suborbital human spaceflight from
Spaceport America
Spaceport America, formerly the Southwest Regional Spaceport, is an FAA-licensed spaceport located on of State Trust Land in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and southeast of Truth or Consequences. With V ...
. A second flight, carrying company founder
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields.
Branson expressed ...
and three other passengers, was conducted on 11 July 2021.
The
first crewed flight of
Blue Origin
Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...
's
New Shepard
New Shepard is a fully reusable suborbital launch vehicle developed by Blue Origin for space tourism. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and vertical land ...
suborbital spacecraft successfully sent four civilians, including company founder
Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, into space just above the
Kármán line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and offers a specific definition set by the Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping ...
on 20 July 2021. Blue Origin's
second crewed suborbital flight of New Shepard occurred 13 October 2021, this time not including Bezos but the actor
William Shatner
William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...
and 3 others. The
third flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard, again a suborbital flight, took place 11 December 2021. This was the first flight with six passengers on board, the full number of passengers the New Shepard is designed for.
On 16 September 2021
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
launched the
Inspiration4
Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy Sp ...
mission. The mission successfully completed the first orbital spaceflight with only private citizens aboard. The mission was privately financed by
Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman (born February 11, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, pilot, philanthropist, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, CEO of Draken International, a private air force provider and Shift4 Payments, a payment processor. As of ...
who participated in the flight with 3 other passengers (the others did not pay for their flight). The mission orbited the Earth at high orbit (higher than ISS) and splashed down in the Atlantic, lasting almost three days.
On 8 December 2021 the Russian
Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft began a 12-day space tourism mission to ISS, resuming space tourism activity in the ISS after over a decade; the previous space tourist to visit the station was the Canadian
Guy Laliberté
Guy Laliberté, (born 2 September 1959) is a Canadian billionaire businessman, and poker player. Along with Gilles Ste-Croix, he is the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil. In January 2018, Laliberté was ranked by ''Forbes'' as the 11th wealthiest ...
in 2009. The 2021 space tourist mission took two tourists, the Japanese billionaire
Yusaku Maezawa
is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector. He founded Start Today in 1998 and launched the online fashion retail website Zozotown in 2004, now Japan's largest. Most recently, Maezawa introduced a custom-fit apparel brand ZOZO and ...
and his assistant
Yozo Hirano
is a Japanese space tourist. He flew to the International Space Station on Soyuz MS-20 in December 2021.
He flew with Yusaku Maezawa, who paid for both seats; his function was that as a production assistant to Maezawa and to document the flight ...
, to the station.
Space telescopes
The
IXPE
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, commonly known as IXPE or SMEX-14, is a space observatory with three identical telescopes designed to measure the polarization of cosmic X-rays of black holes, neutron stars, and pulsars. The observatory ...
telescope was launched on a Falcon 9 on 9 December 2021. The long-delayed
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...
, the largest optical
space telescope
A space telescope or space observatory is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched ...
ever built, was launched to the
Sun–Earth point by a European
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...
rocket on 25 December 2021.
Rocket innovation
The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit continued with the continued development of
smaller rockets by multiple commercial launch providers and larger next-generation vehicles by more established players.
While multiple high-profile next-generation rockets were originally planned to make their maiden orbital flights in 2021, all were ultimately shifted to 2022 due to development delays. These included the maiden flight of
Vulcan Centaur
Vulcan Centaur is a two-stage-to-orbit, heavy-lift launch vehicle that is under development by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2014 with an initial flight expected in early 2023. It is principally designed to meet launch demands for the ...
, designed to gradually replace
Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture be ...
and
Delta IV Heavy
The Delta IV Heavy (Delta 9250H) is an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle, the largest type of the Delta IV family. It is the world's third highest-capacity launch vehicle in operation, behind NASA's Space L ...
at lower costs, which was postponed in June 2021; the
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...
's
H3 launch vehicle
The H3 Launch Vehicle is an expendable launch system in development in Japan. H3 launch vehicles are liquid-propellant rockets with strap-on solid rocket boosters and are planned to be launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. Mitsub ...
, planned to cost less than half that of its predecessor
H-IIA
H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar or ...
;
the maiden launch of NASA's
Space Launch System
The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any r ...
(SLS) super heavy-lift rocket on the
Artemis 1
Artemis 1, officially Artemis I and formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the return of the agency to lunar exploration original ...
, which was postponed mid-year to early 2022; and the first orbital test flight of a prototype of the
SpaceX Starship
Starship is a Fully-reusable orbital launch vehicle, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by SpaceX, an American aerospace company. With more than twice the thrust of the Saturn V, it is designed to be the most powe ...
.
The
latter rocket's development continued through 2021 at
SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with a suborbital testing campaign continuing from the previous year. Starship prototype SN15 was the first testbed of the future rocket family to survive a launch and soft touchdown on 5 May 2021. The first-ever full-stack fit check of Starship prototype SN20 with the booster stage followed in August.
Orbital and suborbital launches
Deep-space rendezvous
Extravehicular activities (EVAs)
Space debris events
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
Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...
is a Russian rocket.
By rocket
By family
By type
By configuration
By spaceport
By orbit
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.
See also
*
Timeline of Solar System exploration#2020s
Notes
References
External links
{{Orbital launches in 2021
Spaceflight by year
Spaceflight
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...