Space exploration made great strides in 2021 with many exciting missions being launched, particularly the Arab world’s mission to Mars.
Some of the missions are as follows:
UAE’s Hope probe
On February 9, the UAE announced that its exploratory probe, ‘Hope’ had successfully entered Mars’ orbit, marking it the first Arab expedition to the Red Planet.
The UAE became the fifth country to launch a Mars mission successfully and the third to enter Mars orbit on the first try.
NASA’s spacecraft flies above the Red Planet
On February 18, just a few days after the arrival of the Hope probe to Mars, the NASA spacecraft Perseverance safely landed on the surface of Mars, completing a 7-month voyage that crossed over half a billion kilometers.
On April 19, around two months after the arrival of Perseverance, which was carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, the latter successfully flew over the sky of Mars and soared 10 feet above the surface for just over 39 seconds in the red planet’s thin atmosphere.
Since then, Ingenuity has been live-streaming and shooting images from Mars.
Huge Chinese rocket booster falls to earth
On May 8, the 23-ton core stage of a Long March 5B missile crashed back to Earth, ending ten days of debate that drew worldwide attention and sparked a more considerable discussion about orbital debris and responsible spacefaring.
The Long March 5B launched the core module for China’s new space station on April 28. Instead of landing safely in the ocean, the rocket’s first stage reached orbit, becoming a piece of space junk waiting to crash back to Earth due to atmospheric drag.
The first Chinese probe landed on Mars
On May 14, China said that the Tianwen-1 space mission, which launched to Mars on July 22, 2020, was a complete success after its Zhurong rover landed safely on the Red Planet’s surface.
The landing of Zhurong, just a few months after the arrival of the US Perseverance, represents a significant milestone in China’s ascension to space superpower status.
The world’s first all-civilian space mission
SpaceX made history by flying the world’s first civilian crew into orbit without a professional astronaut on September 18, 2021.
The mission, called Mission Inspiration 4, was commanded by a four-person crew that raised awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
This milestone represented a new era for human spaceflight and exploration.
Jeff Bezos goes to space
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos blasted off to the edge of space on July 20 along with three other members of the all-civilian crew on Blue Origin vessel. The sub-orbital trip was made possible by the New Shepard launch vehicle. In October, the company created headlines by launching famed actor William Shatner and Glen de Vries, Dr. Chris Boshuizen, and Audrey Powers on a short trip beyond Earth.
Parker Solar Probe
NASA’s spacecraft Parker Solar Probe touched the Sun flying past its outer atmosphere and entering the ‘Corona,’ the Sun’s upper atmosphere, on December 15. The American space agency stated that the spacecraft sampled particles and magnetic fields in Corona, ‘one giant leap for solar science’.