{"id":136414,"date":"2020-12-18T00:17:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T21:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/worlds-space-achievements-a-bright-spot-in-stressful-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-12-18T00:17:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T21:17:38","slug":"worlds-space-achievements-a-bright-spot-in-stressful-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/worlds-space-achievements-a-bright-spot-in-stressful-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"#World’s space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#World’s space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020<\/strong>”
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 Astronauts blasted into orbit from the U.S. for the first time in nearly a decade, three countries sent spacecraft hurtling toward Mars, and robotic explorers grabbed rocks from the moon and gravel from an asteroid for return to Earth.<\/p>\n

Space provided moments of hope and glory in an otherwise difficult, stressful year.<\/p>\n

It promises to do the same in 2021, with February\u2019s landings at Mars and next fall\u2019s planned launch of the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s successor \u2014 the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n

Boeing hopes to catch up with SpaceX in the astronaut-launching department, while space tourism may finally get off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201c2021 promises to be as much of a space exploration bright spot, perhaps even more,\u201d said Scott Hubbard, NASA\u2019s former \u201cMars Czar\u201d now teaching at Stanford University.<\/p>\n

Although the coronavirus pandemic complicated space operations around the globe in 2020, most high-priority missions remained on track, led by the U.S., China and the United Arab Emirates in a stampede to Mars in July.<\/p>\n

The UAE\u2019s first interplanetary spacecraft, an orbiter, will scrutinize the Martian atmosphere. NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover is set to land Feb. 18 at an ancient river delta and lakebed where microscopic life may have once flourished. The rover will drill into the dry crust, collecting samples for eventual return to Earth.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s orbiter-rover duo Tianwen-1 \u2014 quest for heavenly truth \u2014 also will hunt for signs of bygone life.<\/p>\n

The European and Russian space agencies skipped the 2020 Mars launch window, their life-sniffing Mars rover grounded until 2022 because of technical issues and COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

China also set its sights on the moon in 2020, landing and then launching off the lunar surface in December with the first moon rocks collected for return to Earth<\/a> since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Japan brought back pieces of asteroid Ryugu \u2014 its second asteroid batch in a decade. More asteroid samples are on the way: NASA\u2019s Osiris-Rex spacecraft vacuumed up handfuls of gravel from asteroid Bennu in October for return in 2023.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX, meanwhile, was buzzing in 2020. In May, it became the first private company to put people into orbit, an achievement previously claimed by just three global superpowers. The two test pilots were the first NASA astronauts to fly a new brand of spaceship in almost 40 years and the first to blast off from Florida since the shuttle program ended in 2011.<\/p>\n

In November, four more astronauts rode a SpaceX Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. Three weeks later, SpaceX launched its biggest cargo shipment yet to the space station for NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an impressive achievement which Americans should be proud of,\u201d astronaut-turned-senator Mark Kelly said of the Dragon capsule double-header.<\/p>\n

Until the SpaceX flights, Russia\u2019s three-person Soyuz capsules were the only way to get astronauts to the space station once NASA\u2019s shuttles shut down.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s other hired crew transporter, Boeing, is scrambling to get its Starliner capsule back in action after a software-spoiled test flight in December 2019. The do-over \u2014 again with no one on board \u2014 is targeted for spring. If the repairs work and the capsule finally reaches the space station, the first Starliner astronauts could be flying by summer.<\/p>\n

Musk capp<\/a>ed the year with a stratospheric test flight of Starship, the rocketship he\u2019s building to carry people to the moon and Mars. The Dec. 9 demo went better than anyone imagined until a fiery explosion at touchdown. Even so, Musk was ecstatic.<\/p>\n

At the same time, SpaceX is expanding its Dragon-riding clientele. Late next year, SpaceX expects to launch the first privately financed Dragon flight in a deal arranged by Houston-based Axiom Space.<\/p>\n

Axiom\u2019s Michael Lopez-Alegria, an ex-NASA astronaut and former president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, will accompany Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe and two other paying customers to the space station. Stibbe, a former fighter pilot, was a close friend of Israel\u2019s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died aboard space shuttle Columbia in 2003.<\/p>\n

Will Tom Cruise be joining them? The actor was in talks with NASA this year about filming a movie at the space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the true beginning of private spaceflight and will get the ball rolling toward multiple private missions to orbit per year,\u201d Lopez-Alegria said in an email. \u201cI\u2019ve been preaching for almost a decade __ that commercial human spaceflight is the next giant leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other space-travel<\/a> companies \u2014 Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin and Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic \u2014 are still conducting test flights and have yet to set firm dates for launching customers on short flights to the edge of space and back.<\/p>\n

NASA is still targeting a November debut of its new moon rocket, the Space Launch System, with an Orion capsule that will launch without a crew. The Trump administration had set a 2024 deadline for the first moon landing by astronauts since NASA\u2019s Apollo program a half-century ago. Just this month, NASA introduced the 18 astronauts who will train for the moon program named for Artemis, the mythological twin sister of Apollo.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how President-elect Joe Biden might alter the lunar-landing program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever else can be said about the four years of the Trump administration, they have been positive for the U.S. civilian space program,\u201d noted John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University\u2019s Space Policy Institute. \u201cNo prior major programs were cancelled, the human exploration program was given clear direction, and funding for existing programs was increased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a legacy that the Biden administration can build on, so that in future years there can be a continued string of successes.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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“#World’s space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020” CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. \u2014 Astronauts blasted into orbit from the U.S. for the first time in nearly a decade, three countries sent spacecraft hurtling toward Mars, and robotic explorers grabbed rocks from the moon and gravel from an asteroid for return to Earth. Space provided moments…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/space-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[86788,73340,5026,5019,70678],"class_list":["post-136414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-17-20","tag-astronauts","tag-nasa","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}