TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Even though 2020 is a challenging year for the industry outer space and everyone in the midst of the corona virus pandemic, many interesting missions will be launched or arrive at their destinations in 2021.
From Mars to asteroids, robots, humans and more, we’ll see space exploration continue to expand across the solar system. We’ll also see some new rockets flying from companies like Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space.
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Here are 14 space missions on 2021:
1) Three countries arrive on Mars
The space industry is booming and the Red Planet appears to be the hottest mission destination. NASA will continue its long-term search for life with the Perseverance rover, which will store samples of Mars for final analysis on Earth and test the first Mars helicopter, called Ingenuity.
China’s ambitious Tianwen-1 Mission, the country’s first Mars mission, will target orbiters, landers and explorers exploring the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates also sent its first mission, the Hope orbiter, to Mars to inspire the “next generation”.
2) Starliner’s second unmanned test mission
Boeing ran into a number of problems when its commercial crew Starliner Orbital Test Flight-1 (OFT-1) launched into space in 2019 – did not reach the International Space Station as planned and both NASA and the company investigated and applied some lessons learned to the experiment at year 2021.
Boeing hopes to launch a second attempt on March 29, 2021 after overcoming a software problem that prevented Starliner from achieving its objectives for the first mission. If Boeing is successful, this will make the Starliner the second commercial spacecraft to be certified to take astronauts into orbit, after the SpaceX Crew Dragon.
3) Manned Starliner trials
Assuming that the Starliner passes the unmanned flight test, Boeing plans to send three astronauts to the International Space Station around June 2021. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Barry “Butch” Wilmore will fly Boeing’s first crew test flight. Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson was initially assigned to lead the mission, but withdrew from frequently delayed flights for personal reasons in October 2020.
4) Japanese explorers drove ULA’s first Vulcan rockets
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