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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