The year 2019 for space exploration had its highs and lows. Among the highs were the Japanese spacecraft that retrieved samples from an asteroid’s surface two times. Japan’s spacecraft shot a bullet into this asteroid creating an artificial crater.
Ref: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/science/hayabusa2-ryugu-asteroid-japan.html
SpaceX, (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.), a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company, headquartered in Hawthorne, California and founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, launched a new crew vehicle to the International Space Station.
Ref: https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/category/spacex/
Another high of worthy mention is that NASA’s New Horizons probe did a fly-by of the most distant object that a human-made spacecraft has ever visited.
Ref: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
Five of 2019’s Biggest Space Failures
On the negative side of space exploration, there were several major failures. These include:
1. The Israeli company, SpaceIL Beresheet Lander crash landed on the moon’s lunar surface. There was more to this event that occurred in April 2019. Later in August 2019, a report claimed that the lander’s payload had secretly included a capsule of tardigrades. These are defined as water bears or moss piglets that are a phylum of water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals.
As the report from SpaceIL indicated, it is possible that these tardigrades may have survived the crash and might still be on the moon’s surface. If this is so, tardigrades may be the first lunar life.
2. India was looking forward to taking its place as the fourth nation to land a craft on the moon. However, India’s Vikram Lunar Lander crashed into the lunar surface. The Vikram was originally sent to the moon’s South Pole for research on the moon’s reserves of water ice.
3. SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) also experienced a failure. This occurred after the launch of its Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Due to a leaky propellant valve, the Crew Dragon went up in flames.
4. Mars One has reportedly gone bankrupt. After intensive public relations promotions and the Dutch receiving tens of millions of dollars from investors, the plan was to send the first humans to Mars and to establish a colony there.
Due to lack of development of its own spaceflight architecture and inability to cover full expenses, this grandiose space plan is in bankruptcy.
5. The Iranian space exploration program is still in its infancy. However, this nation has conducted several missions in 2019 in January, February and August. In the earlier attempts, rockets failed to reach orbit and in the August attempt, the rocket never left the earth’s surface.
Ref: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614969/the-five-biggest-space-failures-of-2019/
