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NASA/JPL-Caltech
Three missions to Mars were launched. NASA returns to the human spaceflight game for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touched an asteroid, while a Japanese vehicle returned with several grams of the asteroid, and China brought some of the lunar rocks back to Earth. In South Texas, some starships lived, and some starships died. It was fantastic to see it all.
As we await a new year, space is good, if not more, to come. I sought suggestions from readers on Twitter about what they are anticipating in the coming year and received over 400 responses. This list is a distillation of those ideas, along with some of my own, to compile the goodness of space that we most want to see in 2021. Spoiler Alert: There’s a lot.
But first, a careful note: History has taught us that this will not be all (for example, last year’s space preview). And if a “Q4” flight of a rocket or other major technological event has a timeline to be out by this time next year, it will be very short in the next year. Nevertheless, we are making our best guess at what could happen in space this year.
A fleet of mars arrives
Three Mars missions launched from Earth during the summer of 2020 and all three are now approaching the Red Planet. The big question is whether all three will be able to make it there safely in February?
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The first mission of the United Arab Emirates, the Red Planet, Mars Hope, is scheduled to arrive on 9 February. At this time, the spacecraft will perform a challenging maneuver to go down slowly and enter orbit with a height around Mars. As 1,000 km. If all went well, the spacecraft would spend a Martian year – 687 Earth days – studying the planet’s atmosphere and better
understanding its weather.
China has not said when, exactly, its ambitious Tianwen-1 mission will arrive on Mars, but it is expected in mid-February. After the spacecraft enters orbit, it will spend a few months preparing to land, assessing the planned landing site in the Utopia Planitia region. Then, China will attempt to become only the second country to soften a spacecraft on Mars that survives for more than a few seconds. This will be a major moment for the country’s space program.
And so much fire.
Here’s a view of the launch in infrared.
The Atlas V rocket has launched NASA’s previous four missions to Mars.
This image provides a gorgeous view of the rocket launching from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Love the pillar of smoke.
Four solids give the Atlas V rocket a kick off the pad.
Love this image.
A good vantage point shows the rocket lifting off over the Atlantic Ocean.
Nice vapor cone!
Goodbye, Percy!
NASA’s Mars Perseverance will likely be the last of three missions to arrive at Mars, reaching the red planet in mid-February and attempting a landing in Jezero Crater on February 18. This entry, descent, and landing phase—much like with the Curiosity lander in 2012—will be must-see TV.
History suggests at least one of these three missions will not make it, but we’ll hope to defy those odds.
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More Starship flights
SpaceX ended up flying its Starship vehicle three times in 2020. Twice, it sent prototypes with a single engine to 150 meters. Then, in December, it sent a full-size prototype to an altitude of about 12.5km. During this stunning flight, the vehicle—complete with three Raptor engines, a nose cone, and flaps–executed a belly flop maneuver and very nearly landed safely in South Texas.
We can probably expect a lot more flights, to higher altitudes, in 2021. As SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained to Ars in February, SpaceX has been focused on building the machine to build the machine in South Texas. Now, much of that work is complete, and SpaceX is rapidly producing Starship vehicles at its Boca Chica launch site. In late December, as the company rolled its “Serial Number 9” Starship to the pad, components of vehicles 10 through 17 were in various stages of development at the factory-beneath tents.
At the same time, SpaceX is also beginning to fabricate the Super Heavy rocket that will serve as Starship’s first stage. It seems plausible that one of the Starships presently under construction will make an orbital flight attempt atop Super Heavy this year. Or not. One thing is for sure—it will be fun to watch the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of SpaceX as it seeks to build an interplanetary spaceship the likes of which has never been seen before.
James Webb Space Telescope
Snarking about the delays in the launch schedule of the ultra-ambitious James Webb Space Telescope have become commonplace in the space community, and indeed this flagship astrophysics mission is far behind schedule and over budget.
However, it seems like NASA’s current science leadership has addressed a number of the technical and management issues that had been plaguing the telescope program and causing delay after delay. Now, there seems to be quiet confidence that NASA’s space telescope will stick to its Oct. 31, 2021 launch date on a European Ariane V rocket.
NASA
After the launch, tension will only increase as the telescope undergoes a two-week process that will see deployment of a sunshield as well as primary and secondary mirror assemblies. All of this could make for an exciting end of 2021 for astronomers—or a heartbreaking one if this complex process goes awry.
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