- This year, the world made some major achievements in the race to space.
- That included SpaceX sending its most powerful rocket into space and India reaching the moon.
- Here’s everything you need to know to find out what happened in the 2023 space race.
Every year, space agencies and private companies move closer to making us a multi-planetary species, breaking down barriers in the process.
This year was no exception. 2023 saw groundbreaking rocket launches, an unprecedented moon mission, and amazing scientific discoveries.
Here’s everything you need to know to catch up in the new year.
1. SpaceX’s Starship rocketed into space twice and exploded both times
One of the most anticipated spaceflight events of this decade took place in 2023 after SpaceX launched its massive Starship megarocket in fully stacked form for the first time.
Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. The nearly 400-foot-tall ship is designed as a workhorse to carry humans and cargo to and from Mars. It could also play a key role in NASA’s return to the moon.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has previously shown that its Starship spacecraft can fly solo. But the company had never attempted to launch it on top of a superheavy booster, a necessary step to get a spacecraft into space.
The seal was broken twice this year. The fully stacked giant rocket made its maiden flight on April 21st.
In some ways, this flight was a success. The rocket passed the launch pad and flew for several minutes. However, it got out of control and eventually burst into flames. It was later discovered that the Starship’s powerful engines had blown a crater into the concrete launch pad.
Still, SpaceX modified the rocket and flew it again on November 18th. This time, the spacecraft was able to separate and blast off into space, but within seconds of reaching the top, it exploded again.
2. Private space companies made headlines
It’s been a big year for other spaceflight companies as well.
Relativity Space demonstrated the capabilities of its giant 3D printer by launching and flying a rocket made of 85% printed material. Terran 1 successfully separated from its first stage, but failed to reach orbit.
The company is currently aiming to develop an even larger rocket called the Terran R. Defeat the Mask to Mars. Relativity will continue to advance its rocket development, but its main goal is to demonstrate the power of 3D printers that could one day be used to create custom equipment for Mars colonists, said CEO Tim Ellis. He previously told Business Insider.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin received a coveted vote of confidence from NASA. In May, it became the second private company, after SpaceX, to win the agency’s coveted contract to develop technology to land astronauts on the moon. The company earned $3.4 billion.
The company also won NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) contract, which will see Blue Origin’s New Glenn, a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, make its maiden flight. This means we can fly research payloads to Mars.
SpaceX also broke a record set just last year.
The company has launched 74 orbital missions through October, surpassing the previous record of 62 in 2022.
The company aims to launch 100 flights by the end of 2023, Bill Gerstenmeyer, a senior SpaceX official, told a U.S. Senate Space Science Subcommittee hearing on Oct. 18. Stated. According to Space.com.
Space.com added that the goal is to fly 12 times a month next year, or every three days.
3. China got serious about the moon
China once again demonstrated its precision spaceflight engineering capabilities, reporting in July that it had reached orbit with a rocket powered by Metalox, a composite liquid fuel of methane and oxygen.
In doing so, the country beat out several U.S. companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, that are pushing Metalox-fueled rockets into orbit.
The country continued its aggressive schedule for its space program this year, announcing that it could build a space station on the moon within five years and put it in orbit by 2030.
4. Russia fell behind in its moon ambitions
Meanwhile, Russia’s moon aspirations took a hit this year.
Roscosmos aims to beat out countries including China, the United States, Japan and India to be the first to land a robotic spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, a location of strategic importance for future lunar exploration. did.
The country was reviving its long-dormant lunar program, which had not landed on the moon since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But after a successful launch in August, Roscosmos’ Luna 25 spacecraft broke contact with Earth, spun out of control, and crashed into the moon.
5. Where Russia failed, India prospered – a step that will take India to pole position in the space race
India stunned the world in August when it became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole and the fourth country to land on the moon.
Chandrayaan-3’s dog-sized rover was released from the spacecraft a few days after landing and collected important information about the lunar soil before shutting down in September.
“This definitely puts us on the international stage as an emerging space power,” Robert Brown, director of space exploration at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, previously told Business Insider.
6. Europe tried to catch up.
In January, Britain attempted its first launch from mainland Britain from Cornwall’s new spaceport at Newquay. However, the celebrations were cut short when Virgin Orbit’s rocket failed to reach orbit. This was a blow to the spaceport, as its only publicly traded customer, Virgin Orbit, shut down soon after.
This misfire is a symptom of a larger problem at stake. The European Space Agency (ESA) has independent access to space. steadily shrinking.
ESA comes under fire for delays in transporting heavy goods Ariane 6 development And the recent failure of the latest rocket, Vega-C. As a result, the European agency is in a “serious launch crisis” after Ariane 5 was retired in July, ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said. Said.
The UK’s new spaceport is part of a larger effort to expand commercial launch capacity in the region. European countries have invested in building a continental spaceport to complement ESA’s launch pad in French Guiana. First mainland EU spaceport opens in Sweden Arctic In January.Orbital spaceport opened Andoja, Norwayin November.
In announcing the Swedish spaceport, the EU president said: Ursula van der Leyen It heralded a “change in the way Europe does space” and promised more support for small space companies and private investors.
Europe’s private spaceflight ambitions received a welcome boost in October with the maiden flight of Europe’s first fully private rocket, a single-stage rocket called Miura-1 designed by Spanish company PLDSpace.
Although the rocket failed to reach orbit, it was a valuable weapon that the company hopes will help advance the development of Muira 5, a two-stage reusable rocket that could be launched as early as 2025. The data was obtained. Space.com reported.
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