The year 2024 was full of exciting space missions, many of which left geeks and enthusiasts biting their nails. As the year comes to an end, we are looking at the biggest missions that hogged all the spotlight.
ISRO’s Aditya-L1 Spacecraft Enters Halo Orbit Around Lagrange Point 1
On January 6, ISRO’s Aditya-L1 spacecraft entered the halo orbit around the Lagrange Point 1 or L1, from where it will observe the Sun. The observatory was launched on September 2, 2023 to solve the mysterious features of the Sun such as its corona (outermost solar atmospheric layer) which affects space weather.
Greetings from Aditya-L1!
I’ve safely arrived at Lagrange Point L1, 1.5 million km from my home planet. 🌍Excited to be far away, yet intimately connected to unravel the solar mysteries #ISRO pic.twitter.com/BCudJgTmMN
— ISRO ADITYA-L1 (@ISRO_ADITYAL1) January 6, 2024
The L1, about 15 lakh kilometres from Earth, is a gravitationally stable point in space which offers a fuel efficient lifespan to the spacecraft. The location also makes it easier for the observatory to sample solar wind and particles.
Peregrine Lander Fails At Landing On The Moon
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander was supposed to be the world’s first private lander on the Moon but it failed to do so. The lander suffered a rupture in its fuel tank which made it impossible to continue on its journey and touchdown on the lunar surface.
(2/2)Peregrine captured this video moments after successful separation from @ulalaunch Vulcan rocket. Counterclockwise from top left center is the DHL MoonBox, Astroscale’s Pocari Sweat Lunar Dream Time Capsule, & Peregrine landing leg. Background: our big blue marble, Earth! pic.twitter.com/1y4OsosNDp
— Astrobotic (@astrobotic) January 19, 2024
The mission team then decided to abort the landing and Peregrine was maneuvered back to Earth. Launched on January 8, it made its reentry into Earth ten days later and burned up over the Pacific Ocean.
ALSO SEE: Peregrine Mission: U.S. Won’t Land On The Moon After 50 Years Due To Fuel Leak
NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Crashes On Mars
NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity crashed on the red planet on January 18 which marked the end of its unexpectedly long run. Designed for just five flights, Ingenuity flew 72 times since reaching Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2021.
What caused the Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter‘s hard landing during its final fateful flight earlier this year?
Engineers from JPL and AeroVironment are performing the first aircraft accident investigation on another world. Here’s what they know so far: pic.twitter.com/LJ6rRFFTN2
— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) December 11, 2024
After completing an investigation earlier this month, NASA said that the crash occurred due to flaws in the aircraft’s navigation system.
World’s First Private Lander Touches Down On The Moon
Intuitive Machines did what Astrobotic couldn’t in February this year. The company landed Odysseus near the lunar south pole becoming the first private lander on the Moon. It was also the first American lander on the lunar surface since 1972.
Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after pitching over during its approach to the landing site. The camera is on the starboard aft-side of the lander in this phase. 2/5 (26FEB2024 0745 CST) pic.twitter.com/oUcjk3bCqW
— Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 26, 2024
But the mission didn’t go exactly as planned. The lander tipped sideways after one of its legs broke during landing attempt and it functioned in an unintended position until the mission ended on March 24.
Juice Spacecraft Took Off To Jupiter
🔊Volume up
Unusual view of an #Ariane5 launch. This is #VA260 with @ESA_JUICE only a month ago, #DestinationJupiter.
Only one option for the soundtrack 😉 #NameThatTune
More clips here: @Arianespace @cnes @AirbusSpace @ArianeGroup @esa_sts pic.twitter.com/mKmiXCNpd9
— European Space Agency (@esa) May 12, 2023
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice spacecraft launched on April 24 to explore Jupiter’s icy moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. Juice is currently on an eight-year-long journey to the outer solar system and its operation will begin early next decade.
Sunita Williams Launches To Space
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 as part of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. Williams piloted the Starliner spacecraft, which she also helped design, and she was accompanied by mission commander Barry Wilmore.
Liftoff! Go #AtlasV! Go Centaur! Go #Starliner!
Godspeed, Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni! pic.twitter.com/kTA8fjcLP7
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) June 5, 2024
The spacecraft later malfunctioned and now Williams and Wilmore are stuck at the space station until late March 2025.
ALSO SEE: NASA Announces Postpones Astronaut Sunita Williams’ Return Again; Here’s Why
Juice Makes First-Ever Earth Flyby
🆕Timelapse! Volume up, sit back and enjoy #ESAJuice‘s lunar-Earth flyby in all its glory 🤩 pic.twitter.com/3aPGl3JQG0
— ESA’s Juice mission (@ESA_JUICE) August 27, 2024
ESA’s Juice probe flew by Earth on August 21 in the first-ever gravity-assist manoeuvre. It was also the first time a spacecraft swung by Earth for acceleration toward an outer solar system planet.
The probe was about 6840 km above Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean at 3:26 am IST.
SpaceX Catches Starship Using A Tower
SpaceX caught the mega rocket’s Starship booster using the launch tower for the first time in human history. The 232 feet Super Heavy Booster was caught using the ‘chopsticks’ arms of the launch tower on Starship’s sixth test flight.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
It was the fourth Starship mission of the year and the most successful one. SpaceX was supposed to catch the Booster again during flight 7 on November 20 but aborted due to a technical issue.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that his team will also attempt catching the rocket’s upper stage using the tower soon.
NASA Launches Its Biggest-Ever Spacecraft
NASA launched its biggest-ever spacecraft Europa Clipper to Jupiter on October 14. The spacecraft, with its solar panels fully unfurled, measures about 100 feet or 30.5 metres – as big as a basketball court.
Europa Clipper will travel more than 2.5 billion kilometres to reach Jupiter in six years. It will conduct more than 50 flybys of Europa to determine if the moon’s sub-surface oceans have potential to support life.
ISRO Launches ESA’s Proba-3 Mission To Study The Sun
ISRO launched ESA’s Proba-3 mission on December 5. It is designed to make artificial solar eclipses and study the Sun’s corona.
Kudos Team #ISRO for the successful launch of PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission. With the personal intervention & patronage provided by PM Sh @narendramodi, Team @isro is able to carry one success after the other in a serial manner. Proba-3 is the world’s first precision formation flying… pic.twitter.com/kswlD1p3I3
— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) December 5, 2024
Proba-3 consists of two satellites – occulter and coronagraph – installed in a highly elliptical Earth orbit (600X60,530 km). Four months from now, the two satellites will fly in formation 150 metres apart for six hours each day and observe the artificial eclipses 50 times each year.
ALSO SEE: ISRO’s PSLV-XL Successfully Launches ESA’s Proba-3 Solar Mission In Second Attempt
