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This year, the world made great achievements in the race to space.
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These included SpaceX launching its most powerful rocket into space and India landing on the moon.
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Here’s everything you need to know about what happened in the space race in 2023.
Every year, space agencies and private companies move closer to making us a multiplanetary species, breaking barriers along the way.
This year was no exception. 2023 saw the launch of a brand new rocket, unprecedented lunar missions, and significant scientific discoveries.
Before the new year, here’s everything you need to catch up.
1. SpaceX’s starship was launched into space twice – and blew up both times
One of the most highly anticipated spaceflight events of 2023 took place in 2023, after SpaceX launched its gargantuan Starship mega-rocket in its fully-stacked form for the first time.
Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Standing nearly 400 feet, it is designed to be a workhorse for transporting people and cargo to and from Mars. It could also play a critical role in NASA’s return to the moon.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX previously demonstrated that it could fly the Starship spacecraft by itself. But the company never attempted to launch it atop its Super Heavy booster – a necessary step to get the spacecraft to outer space.
That seal was broken this year, twice. The fully loaded mega-rocket made its maiden flight on April 21.
The flight was a success, somehow. The rocket cleared the launch pad and flew for a few minutes. But it eventually burst into flames after getting out of control. It later emerged that the Starship’s powerful engines had blown a crater in its concrete launch pad.
Without doubt, SpaceX changed the rocket and it flew again on November 18th. This time, the spacecraft successfully separated and flew into space, although it exploded again within seconds of reaching its apex.
2. Private space companies made waves
It was a big year for other space flight companies too.
Relativity Space demonstrated the capabilities of its monstrous 3D printers by launching and flying a rocket made of 85% printed materials. Terran 1 successfully separated from its first stage but failed to orbit.
The company now aims to develop an even bigger rocket, called Terran R, to take Musk to Mars. While Relativity will continue to push its rocket development, its main purpose is to demonstrate the power of its 3D printers, which could one day be used to create custom equipment for Martian settlers, company CEO Tim Ellis previously told Business Insider this.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin received a much-needed vote of confidence from NASA. In May, it became the second private company, after SpaceX, to land the agency’s coveted contract to develop technology to land astronauts on the moon. The company was awarded $3.4 billion.
The firm was also awarded the NASA Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) contract, which means New Glenn, a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle being developed by Blue Origin, could fly a research payload to Mars on its first flight .
SpaceX beat a record it had set only last year.
By October, the company had launched 74 orbital missions, up from the previous record of 62 in 2022.
The company aims to launch 100 flights by the end of 2023, said Bill Gerstenmaier, a senior SpaceX official, on October 18 during a hearing of the US Senate Space and Science Subcommittee, per Space.com.
He added that next year he would aim for 12 flights per month, or a mission every three days or less, per Space.com.
3. China got serious about the moon
China has again demonstrated its precision spaceflight engineering prowess, reporting that it reached orbit with a rocket fueled by metallocs, a composite liquid fuel of methane and oxygen, in July.
In doing so, the country has beaten several US companies trying to get methalox-fueled rockets into orbit, including SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The country this year continued to set aggressive timelines for its space program, announcing that it could build a space station on the moon within five years, and set boots on lunar soil by 2030.
4. Russia fell back on its lunar ambitions
Meanwhile, Russia’s lunar ambitions this year have been second-guessed.
Roscosmos attempted to beat nations such as China, the US, Japan and India by becoming the first to land a robotic mission near the moon’s south pole, a strategically important location for future lunar missions .
The nation wanted to revive 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 probe broke contact with Earth and spun out of control before crashing into the moon.
5. Where Russia failed, India succeeded – a step that puts them in pole position in the space race
India stunned the world in August when it became the first nation to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, and only the fourth country ever to land on the moon.
The Chandrayaan-3 dog rover, launched by the spacecraft a few days after landing, collected vital information about the lunar soil before it powered off in September.
“It certainly puts them on the international stage as an emerging space power,” Robert Braun, head of space exploration at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, previously told Business Insider.
6. Europe tried to catch up
The UK attempted the first launch from British soil from its Cornwall Spaceport in Newquay in January. But the celebrations were cut short when Virgin Orbit’s rocket failed to reach orbit. This was a blow to the spaceport when Virgin Orbit, the only customer on the list, closed shortly afterwards.
This bad fire is a symptom of a bigger issue. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) independent access to space is steadily declining.
ESA has come under fire over the delay in development of the Ariane 6 booster and the recent failures of its newest rocket, Vega-C. This left the European agency in a “startup crisis” after Ariane 5 retired in July, ESA chief Josef Aschbacher said.
The UK’s newly developed spaceports are part of a larger push to expand commercial launch capacity in the area. European countries are investing in the construction of a continental spaceport to complement the ESA launch pad in French Guiana. The EU’s first mainland spaceport was opened in Sweden’s Arctic Circle in January. An orbital spaceport opened in Andøya, Norway, in November.
Announcing Sweden’s spaceport, EU President Ursula van der Leyen called it “a change in the way we do space” in Europe, promising more support for small space businesses and private investors.
Europe’s private spaceflight ambitions received a welcome boost in October when the bloc’s first fully private rocket, a single-stage rocket called Miura-1 designed by Spanish firm PLDSpace, made its maiden flight.
The rocket failed to reach orbit but provided valuable data that the firm hopes will help push development of its Muira-5 two-stage reusable rocket, which could launch as early as 2025. reported Space.com.
Read the original article on Business Insider
