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2019 in spaceflight

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2019 in spaceflight
Yutu-2 rover on the far side of the Moon
A Crew Dragon capsule approaches the International Space Station
LightSail 2 in flight above Earth
A boilerplate Orion spacecraft launching from Spaceport Florida LC-46
Highlights from spaceflight in 2019[a]
Orbital launches
First10 January
Last27 December
Total102
Successes97
Failures5
Catalogued97
National firsts
Spaceflight
Satellite
Space traveller
 United Arab Emirates
Rockets
Maiden flights
Retirements
Crewed flights
Orbital3
Suborbital1 (private)
Total travellers12 (3 suborbital)
EVAs11
2019 in spaceflight
← 2018
2020 →

This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2019.

Overview

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Astronomy and astrophysics

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The Russian-German X-ray observing satellite Spektr-RG was launched on 13 July.

Lunar exploration

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The Chinese probe Chang'e 4 made humanity's first soft landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January and released its Yutu 2 rover to explore the lunar surface on the far side for the first time in human history.

The first panorama from the far side of the Moon, captured by Chang'e 4 lander

Israel's SpaceIL, one of the participants in the expired Google Lunar X Prize,[1] launched the first private mission to the Moon in February. The Beresheet lander from SpaceIL made the landing attempt in April, but crashed onto the Moon.[2] India launched the delayed Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter/lander/rover in July; the orbiter reached lunar orbit in September, but the Vikram lander crashed onto the lunar surface.[3]

Exploration of the Solar System

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The probe New Horizons encountered the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth on 1 January. This is the farthest object from the Sun ever to have a close encounter with a spacecraft.[4] The Japanese asteroid exploration mission Hayabusa2 made a second touchdown with 162173 Ryugu to collect samples,[5] and departed for Earth on 12 November.[6] NASA declared the Mars rover Opportunity's mission over on 13 February.[7] The InSight lander observed the first recorded Marsquake in April.[8]

Human spaceflight

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The first Commercial Crew Development test missions flew this year, aiming to restore United States human spaceflight capability following Space Shuttle retirement in 2011. In an uncrewed test flight, SpaceXSpaceX Dragon 2 successfully flew on a Falcon 9 to the International Space Station on 3 March 2019; the crewed mission was delayed when the recovered capsule exploded during testing on 20 April.[9]Boeing's CST-100 Starliner launched a similar uncrewed test flight on an Atlas V on 20 December, but an anomaly during launch meant that it could not reach the ISS and had to land only 2 days later.[10]

Rocket innovation

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At the beginning of the year, around 100 small satellite launchers were in active use, in development, or were recently cancelled or stalled.[11] Three Chinese manufacturers launched their first orbital rocket in 2019: The maiden flight of OS-M1 in March failed to reach orbit,[12] the maiden flights of Hyperbola-1 in July[13] and of Jielong 1 in August[14] were successful. The PSLV-DL and PSLV-QL variants of the Indian PSLV first flew in January and April respectively.

SpaceX began testing of the SpaceX Starship in 2019, with an uncrewed prototype "Starhopper" flying 150m in the air in a suborbital test flight on 27 August.[15] The heavy-liftLong March 5 made its return to flight in December, more than two years after the July 2017 launch failure that grounded the vehicle and forced an engine redesign.[16]

The "single stick" Delta IV was retired in August,[17] and the analog-controlled Soyuz-FG was retired in September.[18] Due to Ukraine banning control system exports to Russia, Rokot was retired after a final flight in December.[19]

Orbital and suborbital launches

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Main articles: List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2019 and List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2019
List of orbital launches
Month Num. of successes Num. of failures
January71
February51
March81
April70
May81
June60
July111
August120
September60
October50
November120
December150
Total1025

Deep-space rendezvous

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Date (UTC) Spacecraft Event Remarks
1 January New HorizonsFlyby of Kuiper belt object 486958 ArrokothThe observed planetesimal, consisting of two spheroid pieces, was initially nicknamed Ultima Thule.
3 January[20]Chang'e 4Landing at Von Kármán craterFirst landing on the far side of the Moon, coordinates 45°27′25″S177°35′20″E / 45.457°S 177.589°E / -45.457; 177.589.
12 February Juno18th perijove of Jupiter
21 February Hayabusa2First sample collection from asteroid Ryugu[21]
4 April Parker Solar ProbeSecond perihelion
4 April BeresheetLunar orbital insertion
5 April Hayabusa2Release of Small Carry-On Impactor (SCI) on the surface of Ryugu SCI created a crater for further investigation. A dedicated DCAM-3 camera was deployed to observe the impact.
6 April Juno19th perijove
11 April BeresheetLunar landing Crashed due to gyroscope failure[22]
29 May Juno20th perijove
11 July Hayabusa2Second sample collection from Ryugu
21 July Juno21st perijove
20 August Chandrayaan-2Lunar orbital insertion
1 September Parker Solar ProbeThird perihelion
6 September Chandrayaan-2 Lunar landing Vikram lander crashed after it lost attitude and contact at an altitude of 2.3 km.[23]
12 September Juno22nd perijove
2 October Hayabusa2Deployment of ROVER-2 (MINERVA-II-2)Rover failed before deployment, it was deployed in orbit around the asteroid to perform gravitational measurements before it impacted on 8 October.
3 November Juno23rd perijove
13 November Hayabusa2Departure from Ryugu
26 December Parker Solar ProbeSecond gravity assist at Venus
26 December Juno24th perijove

Extravehicular activities (EVAs)

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Start Date/Time Duration End Time Spacecraft Crew Remarks
22 March 12:01 6 hours

39 minutes

18:40 Expedition 59

ISS Quest

United StatesAnne McClain

United StatesNick Hague

  • connected 3 new Li-ion batteries to replace 6 old Ni-H batteries on power channel 4A of the P4 truss segment.[24]
  • cleaned up debris on Unity's common berthing mechanism using Kapton tape [25]
  • secured a tieback for restraints on the solar array blanket box.[24]
29 March 11:42 6 hours

45 minutes

18:27 Expedition 59

ISS Quest

United StatesNick Hague

United StatesChristina Koch

  • connected 3 new Li-ion batteries to replace 6 old Ni-H batteries on power channel 2A of the P4 truss segment.
  • disconnected cables and relocated an adapter plate to enable Canadarm2 to remove a failed Li-ion battery.[26]
8 April 11:31 6 hours 29 minutes 18:00 Expedition 59

ISS Quest

United StatesAnne McClain

CanadaDavid Saint-Jacques

  • installed jumper cables between the Unity module and the S0 truss to establish redundant power to Canadarm2.
  • installed cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex.[24]
  • relocated an adapter plate from the 22 March spacewalk in preparation for future battery upgrade operations[27]
29 May 15:42 6 hours 1 minute 21:43 Expedition 59

ISS Pirs

RussiaOleg Kononenko

RussiaAleksey Ovchinin

  • removed experiments from the Pirs docking compartment and cleaned the windows.
  • installed a handrail to connect Zarya to Poisk and re-positioned the Plume Measuring Unit.
  • moved to the Zvesda Service Module and removed and jettisoned the Plasma Monitoring Units.
  • wished happy birthday to Alexei Leonov who is the first spacewalker and is celebrating his 85th birthday on 30 May. Also brought a picture of Leonov into space with them.
21 August 12:27 6 hours 32 minutes 18:59 Expedition 60

ISS Quest

United StatesNick Hague

United StatesAndrew R. Morgan

Hague and Morgan installed the final International Docking Adapter on the Harmony Module. The task for this spacewalk was identical to Spacewalk 194 and required work by both spacewalkers and Dextre to get the docking port installed in preparation for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner orbital flight test, which will occur by the end of December. The crew also routed cables and installed Wi-Firouters for upcoming experiments.[28]

6 October 11:39 7 hours 01 minutes 18:40 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

United StatesChristina Koch

United StatesAndrew R. Morgan

This spacewalk was the first of Expedition 61 and the first in a series of five to replace and improve ISS batteries on the P6 truss.[29]

11 October 11:38 6 hours 45 minutes18:23 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

United StatesAndrew R. Morgan

United StatesChristina Koch

This spacewalk was the second of Expedition 61 and the second in a series of five to replace and improve ISS batteries on the P6 truss. Before they went out to the hatch, Mission Control Moscow relayed to the crew that Alexei Leonov had died and that this spacewalk was dedicated to him. As the crew came in and took off their suits, each gave a few words in memory of Leonov before station commander Luca Parmitano said "Farewell Alexei, and ad astra."[30][31]

18 October

11:38

7 hours 17 minutes 18:55 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

United StatesChristina Koch

United StatesJessica Meir

This spacewalk was the third of Expedition 61 and the third in a series of five to replace and improve ISS batteries on the P6 truss. Some of the battery swaps were delayed to EVA 222 due to a power failure in a Battery Charge Discharge Unit in slots 5 and 6 on the P6 Truss taking the 4B battery channel offline. Koch and Meir replaced the failed unit and brought it back inside. The battery swap was moved to EVA 222 to save time and Meir and Koch wrapped up the spacewalk by installing a stanchion on the Columbus Module and tightening the bolts on the S0 Truss, which had come loose. This spacewalk was the first all-female spacewalk. During the spacewalk, President Trump called the station and congratulated Koch and Meir on this milestone.[32]

15 November

11:39

6 hours 39 minutes 18:18 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

ItalyLuca Parmitano

United StatesAndrew Morgan

First of a series of four spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer which suffered a power failure last year in one of its four cooling pumps limiting the operation of the experiment. Parmitano and Morgan went outside and removed a cover plate from AMS and jettisoned it into space to make way for a cryo pump that they will assemble between spacewalks. Some of the bolts put up a fight but Parmitano got them all out. The highlight of the spacewalk is when Andrew Morgan threw the cover plate overboard and it drifted off aft of the station into the vacuum of space. The plate will stay in orbit for a few days until the end of December when it enters the atmosphere and burns up. The crew also removed several carbon fiber strips around fluid lines and installed handrails and grapple bars as get-ahead task. This spacewalk marks Parmitano's return to spacewalking after the Water in the Helmet Incident during EVA 171.[33]

22 November

12:02

6 hours 33 minutes 16:35 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

ItalyLuca Parmitano

United StatesAndrew Morgan

The second in a series of four spacewalks to repair the AMS. Parmitano and Morgan cut fluid lines and installed a vent on the AMS Experiment to prep the old cooling pump for removal on the third spacewalk. Parmitano and Morgan also routed cables and installed a new power supply to power the pumps when they are installed on the third spacewalk.[34]

2 December

11:31

6 hours 2 minutes 17:33 Expedition 61

ISS Quest

ItalyLuca Parmitano

United StatesAndrew Morgan

The third in a series of four spacewalks to repair the AMS. Parmitano and Morgan went out on the third spacewalk and installed the cryo pump and routed fluid and electrical lines to power the pump. Flight controllers in Houston, Huntsville, and at CERN activated the experiment and radioed to the crew that AMS passed with flying colors. The crew finished the spacewalk by doing a get-ahead task by covering AMS with thermal blanket.[35]

Space debris events

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See also: List of space debris producing events
Date/Time (UTC) Source objectEvent typePieces tracked Remarks
27 March IndiaMicrosat-R (suspected)
and kinetic kill vehicle 		2019 Indian anti-satellite missile test121[36]Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a successful test of an anti-satellite weapon. The test was believed to have destroyed the Microsat-R satellite launched in January.[37][38]
Early April United States A Centaur 3 upper stage
(previously International Designator 2018-079B) 		Unknown[39]54[40]The upper stage of the Centaur 3 that carried AEHF −4 in high Earth orbit on 17 October 2018 broke up for unknown reasons.[41]
7 May United States Titan IIIC Transtage rocket body[42]Titan IIIC Transtage rocket body ?[note 1]Energetic fragmentation event by caused the overheating of leftover anhydrous hydrazine(N2H4) Mono Propellant
13 August France Ariane 42P third stage rocket body Unknown 7
19 August Russia SOZ (Sistema Obespecheniya Zapuska) ullage motor Proton Block DM fourth stage ?[note 2]Energetic fragmentation event; caused by left over fuel in the ullage motor.
  1. ^No fragments have entered the SSN catalog as 2/4/20
  2. ^Due to difficulties in tracking objects in deep space elliptical orbits it is unknown how many fragments were generated

Orbital launch statistics

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See also: Timeline of spaceflight

By country

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For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.

Country Launches Successes Failures Partial
failures
 China343220
 France4400
 India6600
 Iran2[b]020
 Italy2110
 Japan2200
 Russia25[c]2500
 United States27[d]2700
World1029750

By rocket

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By family

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By type

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By configuration

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By spaceport

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8
16
24
32
40
China
France
India
Iran
Japan
Kazakhstan
New Zealand
Russia
United States
Site Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks
Baikonur Kazakhstan131300
Cape Canaveral United States131300Includes the 11 October Pegasus XL launch whose carrier aircraft took flight from Cape Canaveral
Jiuquan China9810
Kennedy United States3300
Kourou France9810
Mahia New Zealand6600
MARS United States2200
Plesetsk Russia8800
Satish Dhawan India6600
Semnan Iran2020Additionally, one rocket exploded on the launch pad during a ground test.
Taiyuan China10910
Tanegashima Japan1100
Uchinoura Japan1100
Vandenberg United States3300
Vostochny Russia1100
Wenchang China1100
Xichang China131300
Yellow Sea China1100
Total1029750

By orbit

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  •   Low Earth
  •   Low Earth (ISS)
  •   Low Earth (SSO)
  •   Medium Earth
  •   Molniya
  •   Geosychronous (transfer)
  •   Inclined GSO
  •   High Earth
  •   Heliocentric
Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not achieved Accidentally
achieved 		Remarks
Transatmospheric0000
Low Earth / Sun-synchronous666150
Medium Earth9900
Geosynchronous / GTO242400Includes two inclined GSO orbits (IGSO)
High Earth / Lunar transfer2200
Heliocentric / Planetary transfer1100
Total1029750

Notes

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  1. ^Clockwise from top:
  2. ^Additionally, one rocket exploded on the launch pad during a ground test.
  3. ^Includes three European Soyuz launches from Kourou, French Guiana by Arianespace.
  4. ^Includes six Electron launches from Mahia.

References

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  1. ^Grush, Loren (31 March 2018). "No one won the Google Lunar X Prize, but these competitors are still shooting for the Moon". The Verge. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  2. ^Lidman, Melanie (11 April 2019). "Israel's Beresheet spacecraft crashes into the moon during landing attempt". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  3. ^Ramesh, Sandhya (12 June 2019). "Why Chandrayaan-2 is ISRO's 'most complex mission' so far". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  4. ^"New Horizons – Kuiper Belt Extended Mission"(PDF). JHUAPL. 12 December 2017. Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  5. ^Hays, Brooks (11 July 2019). "Hayabusa-makes completes second asteroid touchdown to collect samples". SpaceDaily. Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  6. ^Bartels, Meghan (13 November 2019). "Farewell, Ryugu! Japan's Hayabusa2 Probe Leaves Asteroid for Journey Home". Space.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  7. ^Northon, Karen (13 February 2019). "NASA's Record-Setting Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End". NASA (Press release). Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  8. ^"NASA's InSight Detects First Likely 'Quake' on Mars". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  9. ^Berger, Eric (22 April 2019). "Here's what we know, and what we don't, about the Crew Dragon accident". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  10. ^Burghardt, Thomas (22 December 2019). "OFT Starliner Makes Early Landing at White Sands". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  11. ^Clark, Stephen (18 January 2019). "Relativity Space obtains Air Force approval for Cape Canaveral launch pad". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  12. ^Barbosa, Rui C. (27 March 2019). "Maiden launch of OneSpace OS-M rocket fails". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  13. ^Huang, Echo (25 July 2019). "iSpace achieves China's first private rocket launch". Quartz. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  14. ^Clark, Stephen (17 August 2019). "China's Jielong 1 smallsat launcher successful on first flight". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  15. ^Baylor, Michael (27 August 2019). "SpaceX's Starhopper completes 150 meter test hop". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  16. ^Gebhardt, Chris (27 December 2019). "Long March 5 conducts critical Return To Flight mission". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  17. ^Clark, Stephen (22 August 2019). "Five more Delta 4-Heavy flights in ULA backlog after final "single stick" launch". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  18. ^Gebhardt, Chris (24 September 2019). "Soyuz MS-15 Soyuz-FG retirement; Last launch from Gagarin's Start lofts first Emirati astronaut". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  19. ^Graham, William (26 December 2019). "Rokot conducts final launch – carries three Gonets-M satellites to orbit". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  20. ^McDowell, Jonathan [@planet4589] (8 December 2018). "Chang'e-4 confirmed in 200 x 420000 km orbit on the way to Luna. Should reach lunar orbit around Dec 11. Landing in the South Pole -Aitken Basin (SPA to its friends) scheduled for Jan 4. https://t.co/9GX0DaTTqC" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2023 – via Twitter.
  21. ^Davis, Jason (16 January 2019). "Hayabusa2 team sets date for sample collection, considers two touchdown sites". Planetary Society. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  22. ^Chang, Kenneth (11 April 2019). "Israel's Beresheet Spacecraft Moon Landing Attempt Appears to End in Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  23. ^McDowell, Jonathan (22 September 2019). "Jonathan's Space Report No. 769". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  24. ^ abc"Spacewalkers Complete Battery Swaps for Station Power Upgrades – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  25. ^Weitering, Hanneke (22 March 2019). "Spacewalking Astronauts Swap Space Station Batteries in Power Upgrade". Space.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  26. ^Weitering, Hanneke (29 March 2019). "Spacewalking Astronauts Replace Old Batteries on Space Station". Space.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  27. ^"U.S. and Canadian Astronauts Wrap Up Power Upgrades Spacewalk – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  28. ^Garcia, Mark (21 August 2019). "Spacewalkers Complete Installation of Second Commercial Docking Port". NASA. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  29. ^Garcia, Mark (6 October 2019). "First of Five Power Upgrade Spacewalks This Month Wraps Up". NASA. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  30. ^Moran, Norah (11 October 2019). "Second of Five Power Upgrade Spacewalks Wraps Up". NASA. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  31. ^Malik, Tariq (11 October 2019). "Astronauts Mourn Alexei Leonov, the World's 1st Spacewalker, While On a Spacewalk of Their Own". Space.com. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  32. ^Garcia, Mark (18 October 2019). "NASA Astronauts Wrap Up Historic All-Woman Spacewalk". NASA. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  33. ^"Spacewalkers Complete First Excursion to Repair Cosmic Particle Detector – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  34. ^"Astronauts Complete Intricate Tasks During Second Cosmic Repair Spacewalk – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  35. ^"Astronauts Wrap Up Third Spacewalk for Cosmic Particle Detector Repairs – Space Station". blogs.nasa.gov. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  36. ^T.S. Kelso [@TSKelso] (22 August 2019). "CelesTrak also has 3 more TLEs for debris from the Indian ASAT test (MICROSAT-R DEB). That brings the total, so far, to 121 pieces (including the original), of which only 65 have decayed —148 days after the event: https://t.co/yHuEC6Ac6l https://t.co/1S52MRjXtk" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2023 – via Twitter.
  37. ^DiMascio, Jen (27 March 2019). "Indian ASAT Test Likely Targeted Microsat-R". Aviation Week. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  38. ^"US cautions nations on ASAT tests; warns of space debris". Business Today. 28 March 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  39. ^National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1 August 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News"(PDF). Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  40. ^Space-Track.org (6 August 2019). "Satellite Situation Report". TLE. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  41. ^National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1 August 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News"(PDF). Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  42. ^National Aeronautics and Space Administration (November 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News"(PDF). Space News. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
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