2018 was an incredible year for spaceflight with over 100 successful space launches, and 2019 is bound to be no different.
1. The US’s return to the ISS SpaceX is set to make the first test-launch of its human-rated capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) in January. Called the Crew Dragon Demo-1, the it will be uncrewed. If successful, it will be followed by a crewed test flight in June, carrying two astronauts to the ISS. Boeing, the other company with a NASA Commercial Crew Program contract, has a similar schedule. The first uncrewed flight of its human-rated capsule – the CST-100 Starliner – will be in March, followed by a crewed test flight in August if all goes well. Assuming both the SpaceX and Boeing missions will be successful, they will mark the return of American astronauts to the ISS onboard made-in-American spacecraft. The ultimate goal is to replace the (retired) Space Shuttle programme and also forgo the increasingly expensive use of Russian rockets.
2. Three Moon missions, all to land The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is targeting an early-2019 launch of Chandrayaan 2, its second Moon mission and the first that will attempt to land. Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The lander will carry instruments like a seismometer and a thermal probe, while the rover will carry spectrometers to analyse the lunar soil (regolith). (Note: the launch date was updated on January 1, 2019, to reflect an uncertainty on ISRO’s part.) SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit, will be launching their lunar lander in the first quarter of 2019 onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If successful, SpaceIL will become the first privately funded entity to achieve a lunar landing. The lander will try to land in an interesting lunar feature called a swirl, which are known to have local magnetic fields.
1. The US’s return to the ISS SpaceX is set to make the first test-launch of its human-rated capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) in January. Called the Crew Dragon Demo-1, the it will be uncrewed. If successful, it will be followed by a crewed test flight in June, carrying two astronauts to the ISS. Boeing, the other company with a NASA Commercial Crew Program contract, has a similar schedule. The first uncrewed flight of its human-rated capsule – the CST-100 Starliner – will be in March, followed by a crewed test flight in August if all goes well. Assuming both the SpaceX and Boeing missions will be successful, they will mark the return of American astronauts to the ISS onboard made-in-American spacecraft. The ultimate goal is to replace the (retired) Space Shuttle programme and also forgo the increasingly expensive use of Russian rockets.
2. Three Moon missions, all to land The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is targeting an early-2019 launch of Chandrayaan 2, its second Moon mission and the first that will attempt to land. Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The lander will carry instruments like a seismometer and a thermal probe, while the rover will carry spectrometers to analyse the lunar soil (regolith). (Note: the launch date was updated on January 1, 2019, to reflect an uncertainty on ISRO’s part.) SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit, will be launching their lunar lander in the first quarter of 2019 onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If successful, SpaceIL will become the first privately funded entity to achieve a lunar landing. The lander will try to land in an interesting lunar feature called a swirl, which are known to have local magnetic fields.
