2009 Year in Space

The year I was born – 1963 – was a very active year for space exploration with a flyby of both the moon and Mars, 70 orbital launches (24 by the USSR and 46 by the USA). Only late the previously year, President Kennedy gave his famous "we choose to go to the moon" speech, effectively throwing down the space race gauntlet. Now, 47 years later, we're seeing some amazing things that would have been inconceivable back then. Since I was mainly absent from the space news blogging this year, I'll issue one post to recap the highlights.

Today, the race for space is no longer limited to two bullies dueling it out in the school yard. Instead we've got new contenders in the game, including one that is keeping a lot of people up at night. Among the new entries are New Zealand, Switzerland and Iran, who launched its first homemade satellite into orbit. The telecommunications and research satellite is designed to promote "monotheism, peace and justice" in the world." Um, yeah. That'll give me a few nightmares.

The biggest news in the orbital launch category of 2009 wasn't one of the successful launches, but a failure. On April 5th, North Korea attempted to put a communication satellite into orbit. While the North Koreans insist the satellite was for peaceful purposes, the launch itself caused even President Obama to speak words as strong as his predecessor: "North Korea...has broke the rules...once again...by testing a rocket that could be used for long range missiles. Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread to these weapons. It is time for an international response to prevent the spread of these weapons."

In all, there were 78 launches, with 73 successes (as opposed to the 50 successes of 1963). There were 4 new rockets including the Delta IV by Boeing, a Taurus and one each by Japan and South Korea. The European Space Agency and the Ukraine retired two rockets.

There were 9 manned flights and a total of 46 people travelled in space in 2009. Some of those folks were women and I won't even bother hunting down the statistics on that, but it's interesting to note that 1963 was the year a woman first traveled in space. (She was Soviet – it took another 20 years for an American woman to accomplish the same first.) Among the more memorable manned flights was STS-125, the final mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, certainly one of my favorite pieces of equipment in space (and BTW: the last person to touch the Hubble was a woman), and the 100th mission of the Soyuz space program to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station from the European Space Agency, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. Truly the space race has become integrated.

Efforts in space exploration really shone during 2009, both close to home and at the outer reaches of the solar system. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched and already it is expanding our knowledge of the moon by providing detailed 3D maps to be used for future missions. More excitingly, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has already detected the presence of water on the moon, which will help NASA decide whether or not to build a manned base on the moon.

The Kepler Mission launched in March will explore the exoplanets other star systems to find more Earth-like planets rather than the big gas giants more easily seen. The Kepler telescope, although smaller in size than the Hubble, has a larger field of view and can view 100,000 stars at the same time. NASA plans on announcing some new discoveries from Kepler in a few days.

The Herschel Space Observatory will study light from not only without our own solar system and the Milky Way, but also galaxies beyond. It's looking at the small chemical composition of molecules and how they come together for form stars and galaxies. And the Plank spacecraft will study cosmic microwave background to test theories of the early universe and the origin of the cosmos. Both are projects of the European Space Agency. NASA and the JPL launched the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer to make a complete picture of the sky in the infrared spectrum.

In flybys, Cassini continues its mission around Saturn as recently reported in Mystical Musings. And speaking of mystical energy, Dawn used Mars's gravity to boost itself on its way to study the two largest objects in the asteroid belt Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. And the Messenger probe made its final pass by Mercury where it's been studying the planet from orbit. Messenger has discovered large amounts of water in Mercury's exosphere, dispelling myths that the closest planet to the sun is the driest. The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft performed its final gravity-assist flyby of the Earth on its way to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to help scientists unlock how the solar system looked before the planets formed.

What Comes Next?

The Space Shuttle will retire and test flights of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will commence. This little capsule is reminiscent of the old Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space crafts, but it can carry up to 7 people or people and cargo, depending on its mission. Designed to be used to transport personnel to and from the ISS, the craft will be the main tool for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program NASA will use to coordinate commercial delivery of crew and cargo to and from the ISS. In other words, the space race is quickly and gleefully being outsourced to private business.

Japan plans to launch a probe to Venus to study lightning and volcanoes. And China will conduct another mission in preparation to land a probe on the moon.

Nine manned missions are planned to and from the ISS for crew rotations and cargo delivery. These will mark the final tasks of the space shuttles Atlantis, Endeavour and Discovery. In deep space, Cassini will continue its exploration of Titan and the other Saturnine moons Dione, Enceladus, Mimas, Rhea, and Tethys. Rosetta will fly by the asteroid 21 Lutetia and will hopefully tell us what it is made of and the Akatsuki probe will enter orbit around Venus near the end of the year. By the way, The Planetary Society is offering folks a chance to send a message to Venus along with Akatsuki so hurry and get yours in. I already did mine last month.

Keep an eyes on Mystical Musings as we journey through 2010 together in search of new and exiting space news.

--->Susan