Spaceflight Highlights Of 2021

NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. Just days earlier on Feb. 9, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter had arrived at the planet, joined on Feb. 10 by China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter/lander/rover mission. Tianwen-1 landed on May 14 and deployed its Zhurong rover (pictured) on May 22 to explore the surface of Utopia Planitia.

NASA’s 4-lb. Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, launched from the Perseverance rover in Jezero Crater on April 19 on its 39.1-sec. maiden mission, the first powered flight on another planet. After five flights, Ingenuity transitioned from a technology demonstration to an extended operation test, completing its 17th flight on Dec. 3.

China launched the Tianhe core module for its Tiangong-2 space station on April 28. Two Tianzhou cargo resupply flights followed and the first crewed mission, Shenzhou-12, docked with the module on June 17. The three taikonauts returned to Earth on Sept. 17, after a 90-day stay to help construct the space station.

Virgin Orbit delivered seven cubesats into low Earth orbit on June 30 on its first commercial mission. The mission was the third flight for Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne air-launched, two-stage booster and followed a successful demonstration flight in January.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson joined five Virgin Galactic employees aboard the SpaceShipTwo Unity on July 11 for a suborbital ride to an altitude of 282,000 ft. The Unity-22 mission was a shakedown flight ahead of the start of commercial passenger service, now planned for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, two guests and the company’s first paying passenger took a 10-min. suborbital flight on July 20 on the reusable New Shepard launch vehicle. Blue Origin completed its third crewed flight, and the first with a full complement of six passengers aboard New Shepard, on Dec. 11.

Japanese startup Astroscale’s ELSA-d orbital debris removal demonstration accomplished its first key goal in August, with the servicer satellite showing how it would capture a defunct spacecraft. Later phases aim to demonstrate the capture of a tumbling satellite.

SpaceX completed its first privately chartered spaceflight on Sept. 18, with the four-member Inspiration4 crew returning to Earth after three days in low Earth orbit in the Crew Dragon Resilience. The mission was privately financed and commanded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman.

Launched in 2001, Russia’s Pirs module on July 26 become the first element of the International Space Station to be decommissioned and deorbited. The undocking made room for the new Nauka laboratory module, which arrived on July 29, followed on Nov. 26 by Russia’s new Prichal nodal module.

Rocket Lab in December unveiled the design for its Neutron medium-lift booster, featuring a tapered reusable first stage with a wide base to support vertical landings and a payload fairing that remains attached to the first stage. Designed to carry eight tons to low Earth orbit, Neutron’s first flight is targeted for 2024.