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2019 In Spaceflight
This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2019. Overview Astronomy and astrophysics The Russian-German X-ray observing satellite Spektr-RG was launched on 13 July. Lunar exploration The Chinese probe Chang'e 4 made humanity's first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January and released its ''Yutu 2'' rover to explore the lunar surface on the far side for the first time in human history. Israel's SpaceIL, one of the participants in the expired Google Lunar X Prize, launched the first private mission to the Moon in February. The '' Beresheet'' lander from SpaceIL made the landing attempt in April, but crashed onto the Moon. India launched the delayed Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter/lander/rover in July; the orbiter reached lunar orbit in September, but the ''Vikram'' lander crashed onto the lunar surface. Exploration of the Solar System The probe ''New Horizons'' encountered the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth on 1 January. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperbola-1
The Hyperbola-1 (aka Shuang Quxian-1, SQX-1) ( zh, 双曲线一号) rocket is 20.8 m (68 ft) tall, 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) in diameter and weighs 31 t (34 tons). It consists of four all solid fuel stages, guided by liquid fuel attitude control engines. It can launch 300 kg (660 lb) into low Earth orbit (LEO). The rocket might be based on Chinese military missiles (perhaps DF-11 or DF-15). The first stage of the rocket is equipped with four grid fins. The launch price is reported around US$5 million. __TOC__ History The successful maiden flight was on 25 July 2019, at 05:00 UTC from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It launched from a movable supporting platform. It placed numerous payloads, among them the CAS-7B amateur radio satellite, into orbit 300 km (190 mi) above Earth. CAS-7B decayed from orbit 6 August 2019. It was the first Chinese private company to achieve orbit (orbital launches of other private companies before had failed). A second laun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Far Side Of The Moon
The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitude of impact craters and relatively few flat and dark lunar maria ("seas"), giving it an appearance closer to other barren places in the Solar System such as Mercury and Callisto. It has one of the largest craters in the Solar System, the South Pole–Aitken basin. The hemisphere has sometimes been called the "Dark side of the Moon", where "dark" means "unknown" instead of "lacking sunlight" each location on the Moon experiences two weeks of sunlight while the opposite location experiences night. About 18 percent of the far side is occasionally visible from Earth due to oscillation and to libration. The remaining 82 percent remained unobserved until 1959, when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spektr-RG
Spektr-RG ( Russian: Спектр-РГ, ''Spectrum'' + '' Röntgen'' + ''Gamma''; also called Spectrum-X-Gamma, SRG, SXG) is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory which was launched on 13 July 2019. It follows on from the Spektr-R satellite telescope launched in 2011. Background The original idea for this X-ray observatory satellite orbiting above Earth's atmosphere, which filters X-rays, was first proposed in the 1980s by Rashid Sunyaev of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Twenty institutions from twelve countries came together to design a large observatory with five telescopes. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mission was abandoned due to cost-cutting from the Russian space program Roscosmos. The project was resurrected in 2003 with a scaled-down design. Overview The primary instrument of the mission is eROSITA, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2020 In Spaceflight
This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2020. Overview Astronomy and astrophysics The GECAM A and B satellites were launched on 9 December. They were built for research in electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves. Exploration of the Solar System Three missions to Mars were launched in 2020, including two rovers, two orbiters, and a lander. NASA has launched the Mars 2020 mission, which includes the ''Perseverance'' rover and ''Ingenuity'' helicopter, and will cache samples for eventual return to Earth. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has launched its Tianwen-1 mission, which includes an orbiter, a lander, a small rover and a group of deployable and remote cameras; it is China's first mission to another planet using its own delivery vehicle. Finally, the United Arab Emirates, in partnership with American universities, has launched the Hope Mars Mission orbiter on a Japanese rocket. In November, China launched ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2018 In Spaceflight
This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2018. For the first time since 1990 in spaceflight, 1990, more than 100 orbital launches were performed globally. Overview Planetary exploration The NASA InSight seismology probe was launched in May 2018 and landed on Mars in November. The Parker Solar Probe was launched to explore the Sun in August 2018, and reached its first perihelion in November, traveling faster than any prior spacecraft. On 20 October the ESA and JAXA launched BepiColombo to Mercury (planet), Mercury, on a 10-year mission featuring several flybys and eventually deploying two orbiters in 2025 for local study. The asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 reached its target 162173 Ryugu, Ryugu in June, and the similar OSIRIS-REx probe reached 101955 Bennu, Bennu in December. China launched its Chang'e 4 lander/rover in December which performed the first ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019; a communications relay wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timeline Of Spaceflight
This is a timeline of known spaceflights, both crewed and uncrewed, sorted chronologically by launch date. Due to its large size, the timeline has been split into smaller articles, one for each year since 1951. There is a separate list for all flights that occurred before 1951. The list for the year and for its subsequent years may contain planned launches, but the statistics will only include past launches. For the purpose of these lists, a spaceflight is defined as any flight that crosses the Kármán line, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI-recognized edge of space, which is Above mean sea level, above mean sea level (AMSL). The timeline contains all the flights which have either crossed the edge of space, were intended to do so but failed, or are planned in the near future. Notable test flights of spaceflight systems may be listed even if they were not planned to reach space. Some lists are further divided into orbital launches (sending a payload into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soyuz-FG
The Soyuz-FG was an improved variant of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle from the R-7 (rocket family), R-7 rocket family, developed by the Progress Rocket Space Centre in Samara, Russia. It featured upgraded first and second stage engines, RD-107A and RD-108A, respectively, with enhanced injector heads that improved combustion efficiency and specific impulse. The designation "FG" refers to ''forsunochnaya golovka'' (''injector head'') in Russian. Soyuz-FG made its maiden flight on 20 May 2001, delivering a Progress (spacecraft), Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). It became the primary vehicle for launching crewed Soyuz TMA, Soyuz TMA-M, and Soyuz MS spacecraft from 2002 until its retirement in 2019. Launches occurred from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: crewed missions from Gagarin's Start (Site 1/5) and satellite launches from Site 31/6. Design Soyuz-FG was introduced in May 2001 as a transitional solution while the more advanced Soyuz-2 was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safir (rocket)
The Safir (, meaning "ambassador") was the first Iranian expendable launch vehicle able to place a satellite in orbit. The first successful orbital launch using the Safir launch system took place on 2 February 2009 when a Safir carrier rocket placed the Omid satellite into an orbit with a apogee. This made Iran the ninth nation capable of producing and launching a satellite. The Simorgh is a larger orbital launcher based on Safir technology which has since replaced the Safir, and is sometimes called the Safir-2. Design and specifications The Safir measures 1.25 meters in diameter, 22 meters in height and has a launching mass of 26 tons. The rocket consists of two stages; The first stage utilizes an upgraded Nodong/ Shahab-3 type engine which burns a hypergolic combination of UDMH as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidant, producing 37 tons (363 kN; 82,500 lbf) of thrust. The second stage utilizes a pair of smaller gimballed engines called LRE-4, fed by a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rokot
Rokot ( meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), supplied and operated by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The first launches started in the 1990s from Baikonur Cosmodrome out of a silo. Later commercial launches commenced from Plesetsk Cosmodrome using a launch ramp specially rebuilt from one for the Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. The cost of the launcher itself was about US$15 million in 1999; The contract with European Space Agency (ESA) for launching Swarm in September 2013 was worth €27.1 million (US$36 million). Specifications Rokot's total mass was 107 tonnes, its length 29 metres and its maximum diameter 2.5 metres. The liquid-fueled launch vehicle comprised three stages. The lower two were based o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delta IV
Delta IV was a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family. It flew 45 missions from 2002 to 2024. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, the Delta IV became a United Launch Alliance (ULA) product in 2006. The Delta IV was primarily a launch vehicle for United States Air Force (USAF) military payloads, but was also used to launch a number of United States government non-military payloads and a single commercial satellite. The Delta IV had two main versions which allowed the family to cover a range of payload sizes and masses: the Medium (which had four configurations) and Heavy. The final flight of Medium occurred in 2019. The final flight of Heavy was in April 2024. Delta IV vehicles were built in the ULA facility in Decatur, Alabama. Final assembly was completed at the launch site by ULA: at the horizontal integration facility for launches from SLC-37B pad at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antares (rocket)
Antares (), known during early development as Taurus II, is an American expendable medium-lift launch vehicle developed and built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (later Orbital ATK and Northrop Grumman) with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program awarded in February 2008, alongside the company's automated cargo spacecraft, Cygnus. Like other launch vehicles developed by Orbital, Antares leveraged lower-cost, off-the-shelf parts and designs. The first stage is liquid fueled, burning RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Due to Orbital's limited experience with large liquid stages, the construction was subcontracted to the Ukrainian companies Pivdenne and Pivdenmash. Initially, the Antares 100 series used refurbished NK-33 engines, remnants of the Soviet N1 moon rocket. However, after a catastrophic explosion, the Antares 200 series transitioned to newly built Russian RD-191 engines. Following Russia's in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
