Commercial & Modern
SpaceX Dragon, Falcon 9 reusability, James Webb, Perseverance, Artemis I, Starship. A new architecture of spaceflight built by private companies on NASA contracts.
Part of Space
25 moments in this segment.
- — OSIRIS-REx Sample Return. September 24, 2023. Returned 121g of asteroid Bennu material to Earth — the largest extraterrestrial sample ever returned to Earth besides Moon rocks. First US asteroid sample return.
- — Ingenuity First Flight. April 19, 2021. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered, controlled flight on another planet — 39 seconds, 3m altitude on Mars. Flew 72 missions over three years before mast damage ended its career in January 2024.
- — Perseverance + Ingenuity. Landed February 18, 2021. Mars sample-caching rover. Carried the Ingenuity helicopter — first powered flight on another planet (72 flights before mast malfunction in 2024). The most sophisticated robotic mission yet sent to Mars.
- — Tiangong (Chinese Space Station). November 2022. China's Tiangong space station completed assembly with the launch of the Mengtian lab module. Continuously crewed since June 2022. Smaller than the ISS but operationally independent; designed for ~10 years of service.
- — Virgin Galactic Unity 22 (Branson). July 11, 2021. Richard Branson reached the edge of space on VSS Unity — 9 days before Bezos. The two billionaires raced to be the first private-space-tourism CEO to fly their own vehicle.
- — Blue Origin NS-16 (Bezos). July 20, 2021. Jeff Bezos's first crewed flight of New Shepard — suborbital, 11 minutes. Marketed as "space tourism"; ignited the public debate about billionaire space spending vs Earth-based priorities.
- — Inspiration4. September 2021. First all-civilian orbital spaceflight. Funded by Jared Isaacman. Three-day mission aboard a Crew Dragon, no NASA astronauts aboard. Raised $250M for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- — DART (Asteroid Deflection). September 26, 2022. Deliberately crashed a 600kg spacecraft into asteroid Dimorphos at 22,000 km/h. Successfully changed its orbital period by 32 minutes — first practical test of planetary defence.
- — DART Impact on Dimorphos. September 26, 2022. The DART spacecraft deliberately crashed into asteroid moonlet Dimorphos at 22,000 km/h. First demonstration of planetary defence kinetic-impactor technique. Changed Dimorphos's orbit by 32 minutes — far more than expected.
- — James Webb Space Telescope. Launched Christmas Day 2021. $10B; 25 years in development. 6.5m mirror unfolded in a million-mile journey to L2. First science images released July 2022. The successor to Hubble.
- — JWST First Images. July 11, 2022. The first images from JWST released by President Biden — the SMACS 0723 deep field, Carina Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, WASP-96b atmosphere, Southern Ring Nebula. The most-anticipated science release of the decade.
- — SLS Maiden Launch. November 16, 2022. First flight of NASA's Space Launch System — the most powerful operational rocket at the time. Carried Artemis I (uncrewed Orion around the Moon). Decade-late and over-budget but successful on first launch attempt.
- — Artemis I. November 16, 2022. First flight of NASA's SLS rocket and the uncrewed Orion capsule. Loop around the Moon as the precursor to Artemis II (crewed lunar flyby) and Artemis III (crewed lunar landing).
- — JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer). April 14, 2023. ESA's mission to Jupiter's three icy moons — Ganymede, Callisto, Europa. Arrives 2031; will become the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than Earth's (Ganymede, 2034).
- — Starship IFT-1. April 20, 2023. First integrated flight test of SpaceX's Starship — exploded four minutes after launch. Still the most powerful rocket ever to fly (Booster's 33 Raptor engines).
- — Starship IFT-5 (Booster Catch). October 13, 2024. SpaceX caught the returning Super Heavy booster with the launch tower's "chopstick" arms — first time a booster has been recovered without legs. The most consequential reusability milestone since Falcon 9.
- — Chandrayaan-3 (Lunar South). August 23, 2023. India's first successful lunar landing — and the first soft landing near the lunar south pole. Made India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon (after USSR, USA, China).
- — SLIM (Japan Lunar Landing). January 19, 2024. Japan's SLIM ("Moon Sniper") became the fifth country to soft-land on the Moon — and the first to demonstrate precision landing (within 55m of target). Landed on its side; surprisingly survived the lunar night.
- — Psyche (Metal Asteroid). October 13, 2023. NASA mission to 16 Psyche — a metallic asteroid likely a remnant planetary core. Will arrive 2029 to study what the inside of a planet looks like. First spacecraft to use deep-space laser communications.
- — Odysseus (First Commercial Moon Landing). February 22, 2024. Intuitive Machines' Nova-C "Odysseus" became the first commercial spacecraft and first US vehicle since Apollo 17 (1972) to soft-land on the Moon. Tipped over on landing; partially successful mission.
- — Starship IFT-3. March 14, 2024. Third Starship integrated flight test. First Starship to reach orbital velocity and complete the planned suborbital trajectory. Lost on re-entry but proved Starship's thermal protection system held to hypersonic conditions.
- — Chang'e 6 (Far-Side Sample Return). May 3, 2024. China returned the first lunar samples from the far side of the Moon — 1.9 kg from the South Pole-Aitken basin. Made China the only country to land on the Moon's far side, twice (after Chang'e 4).
- — Polaris Dawn (First Private EVA). September 10-15, 2024. Jared Isaacman's second SpaceX flight. First private spacewalk in human history; first all-private crew to leave low Earth orbit since Apollo. Reached 1,400 km altitude — highest crewed flight since Apollo 17.
- — Europa Clipper. October 14, 2024. NASA's mission to Jupiter's moon Europa — investigating its subsurface ocean for habitability. Largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission. Arrives Jupiter system 2030.
- — Starship IFT-6. November 19, 2024. Sixth Starship integrated flight test. Successfully reignited a Raptor engine in orbital flight for the first time. Booster aborted catch attempt and landed safely in Gulf of Mexico.
