This was a
momentous year for spaceflight. It saw the launch of the world's most powerful
gamma-ray telescope, the space station's largest room, India's first moon
probe, and even a space tourist who happens to be America's first
second-generation space traveler.
Here are
the Top 10 stories of 2008:
10. The
first second-generation space travelers launch
Richard
Garriott, the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, became the first
American second-generation
spaceflyer to reach orbit when he launched aboard a Soyuz rocket in
October. For a hefty $30 million, paid to the Russian Federal Space Agency
through the private U.S. firm Space Adventures, Garriott booked himself a
10-day vacation on the International Space Station (ISS). During his stay
Garriott conducted science experiments, educational outreach activities, and
even brought aboard a flash drive loaded with records of humanity's greatest
achievements, copies of the avatars in one of his games and digital versions of
selected humans' DNA, including that of comedian Stephen Colbert, host of
"The Colbert Report." By coincidence, Garriott flew to the space
station while it was under the command of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov,
himself a second-generation spaceflyer and the son of famed cosmonaut Alexander
Volkov. The two spaceflyers met in orbit and returned to Earth together in
later October.
9. The
most shuttle missions to fly in one year since 2002
NASA
launched four space
shuttle missions in 2008 — and returned each of them safely back home.
That's the most shuttle liftoffs since 2002, and especially noteworthy in the
wake of the Columbia tragedy of 2003. This year's flights each delivered vital
components to the ISS, including major contributions from Japan, Europe and
Canada. And the year almost saw one more shuttle flight — the final servicing
mission to Hubble — but that launch was delayed until 2009 because of glitches
on the orbiting telescope. NASA currently plans to launch nine more shuttle
missions before retiring the fleet in 2010. Six of those flights are scheduled
for 2009.
8. Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope launches
Some of the
cosmos' most puzzling phenomena — supermassive black holes, dark matter and
mysterious explosions called gamma-ray bursts — may soon be more understandable
thanks to NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which launched
in June. The world's most powerful telescope for observing the universe in
high-energy gamma-ray light, the observatory was originally called the
Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST), but was rechristened after Italian
scientist Enrico Fermi once the telescope was up and running in space.
7.
Europe's first cargo ship flies
The
flotilla of space station-bound spacecraft had been static for the last nine
years until a new ship was added to the ranks in March. Europe's Jules
Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle was the first of a new fleet of unmanned
cargo ships designed to ferry food and supplies to astronauts on the orbiting
laboratory. After launching and docking at the station successfully, the
vehicle perished as designed in a fiery plunge through the atmosphere back to
Earth. The double-decker bus-sized spacecraft is due to be succeeded by at
least four sister freighter ships.
6. The
International Space Station turns 10
For the
past 10 years the ISS has been serenely floating above us, steadily growing in
size and hosting more and more scientific cooperation between nations. The $100
billion space station marked its 10th
anniversary Nov. 20, a decade after its first room, the Russian-built Zarya
module, was launched into space. Over the years the lab has grown from the
equivalent of a studio apartment into a three-bedroom house, hosted about 165
visitors from 15 countries, and circled the Earth more than 57,309 times. In
June the laboratory got its biggest addition yet, the tour bus-sized Japanese
Kibo module. The stately space station is not yet complete, though — eight of
NASA's remaining shuttle missions will deliver its remaining components by
2010.
5.
Privately-developed Falcon 1 rocket finally reaches orbit
In a major
milestone, the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) firm successfully
launched its Falcon 1 rocket in September, capping off the company's
six-year effort to lift the first non-governmental rocket into space. Arriving
on the heels of three consecutive failed launch attempts, the Falcon 1's
success was no foregone conclusion. The liquid-fueled booster's liftoff from
the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean proved that SpaceX's engineering is
sound, and the company is on its way toward fulfilling its goal of offering
low-cost commercial rocket launches. It took about $100 million to develop and
test the booster, but future flights should carry an $8 million price tag or
less, the company said. SpaceX is now preparing to launch its larger Falcon 9
rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and is one of two firms to win a NASA space station
cargo contract on Tuesday.
4.
Indian probe orbits the moon
India's Chandrayaan
1 probe became the nation's first spacecraft to travel beyond Earth orbit
when it arrived at the moon in November to begin a planned two-year mission.
The vehicle carried a mini craft painted in the red, white and green pattern of
India's flag that crash-landed at the moon's south pole, taking pictures on its
way down. The achievement establishes India's growing space prowess and sets
the stage for the country's planned future goals of starting a manned space
program and landing a rover on the moon.
3. China
conducts its first spacewalk
In another
first for a nation building up its space program, Chinese astronauts carried
out their
country's first spacewalk in September. China launched three astronauts on
the Shenzhou 7 mission, the nation's third manned spaceflight. Zhai Zhigang
became the first Chinese spacewalker when he stepped out of his space ship
wearing a new Chinese-made spacesuit. During his 20-miute foray into space,
Zhigang retrieved a test sample of lubricant from outside the vehicle, and
waived a Chinese flag at the camera that was broadcasting his feat live. The
event marked an impressive technological achievement for China, only the third
country after Russia and the United States to independently launch a person
into space.
2. Robot
safely lands farther north on Mars than ever before
NASA's Phoenix
Mars Lander touched down on the red planet in May in the first successful
Mars landing since 2004. The stationary spacecraft spent more than five months
testing the arctic plains environment for signs of habitability by potential
Martian life, and confirmed the presence of water ice below the ground. Phoenix
touched down farther north on Mars than any lander before it, and delivered a
treasure trove of images and experimental results from our neighboring planet.
After its prolific research stint, the lander finally ran out of power on Nov.
2 due to decreasing sunlight caused by the arctic transition from summer to
fall and light-obscuring atmospheric dust.
1.
NASA's 50th anniversary
On Oct. 1
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration turned 50 years old, marking
a half century of achievements in space exploration that many would have
doubted were possible before its founding in 1958. While some people are still
smarting over the continued absence of flying cars, most can recognize that
NASA has come a long way since the days when Americans watched with envy as
Sputnik flew overhead. We won the moon (and may be racing back to it all over
again), built a fleet of reusable space shuttles, and worked with other nations
to construct a continuously-occupied floating space station for scientific
research. There have also been horrific tragedies along the way: the lives of
the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts attest to the fact that those
great achievements weren't attained without a price. But for all the
heartbreaks, setbacks and even public boredom with NASA, Americans can't seem
to give up the dream of space. Who knows what the next 50
years will bring?
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