2018 in spaceflight

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2018 in spaceflight
Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster (40143096241).jpg
PIA22575 IDC Camera First Image.jpg
Asteroid-Bennu-OSIRIS-RExArrival-GifAnimation-20181203.gif
ISS-57 EVA (b) Oleg Kononenko.jpg
Highlights from spaceflight in 2018 [a]
Orbital launches
First8 January
Last29 December
Total114
Successes111
Failures2
Partial failures1
Catalogued 112
National firsts
Satellite
Suborbital launchFlag of Norway.svg  Norway
Rockets
Maiden flights
Retirements
Crewed flights
Orbital3 (+1 failed)
Suborbital1 (private)
Total travellers11 (+2 failed)
EVAs 8
2018 in spaceflight
  2017
2019  

This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2018. For the first time since 1990, more than 100 orbital launches were performed globally.

Contents

Overview

Planetary exploration

The NASA InSight seismology probe was launched in May 2018 and landed on Mars in November. The Parker Solar Probe was launched to explore the Sun in August 2018, and reached its first perihelion in November, traveling faster than any prior spacecraft. On 20 October the ESA and JAXA launched BepiColombo to Mercury, on a 10-year mission featuring several flybys and eventually deploying two orbiters in 2025 for local study. The asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 reached its target Ryugu in June, [1] and the similar OSIRIS-REx probe reached Bennu in December. [2] China launched its Chang'e 4 lander/rover in December which performed the first ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019; [3] [4] a communications relay was sent to the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point in May. The Google Lunar X Prize expired on 31 March without a winner for its $20 million grand prize, because none of its five finalist teams were able to launch a commercial lunar lander mission before the deadline. [5]

Human spaceflight

The Soyuz MS-10 October mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was aborted shortly after launch, due to a separation failure of one of the rocket's side boosters. The crew landed safely, and was rescheduled for March 2019 on Soyuz MS-12. [6] The United States returned to spaceflight on 13 December with the successful suborbital spaceflight of VSS Unity Flight VP-03. The flight did not reach the Kármán line (100 km) but it did cross the US definition of space (50 mi). As per United States convention, it was the first human spaceflight launched from the U.S. since the last Space shuttle flight STS-135 in 2011. Astronauts Mark P. Stucky and Frederick W. Sturckow both received their FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings on 7 February 2019. The return of the United States to human orbital spaceflight was further delayed to 2019, as Boeing and SpaceX, under NASA supervision, performed further tests on their commercial crew spacecraft under development: Starliner on Atlas V and SpaceX Dragon 2 on Falcon 9. [7]

Rocket innovation

After a failed launch in 2017, the Electron rocket reached orbit with its second flight in January; manufactured by Rocket Lab, it is the first orbital rocket equipped with electric pump-fed engines. [8] On 3 February, the Japanese SS-520-5 rocket (a modified sounding rocket) successfully delivered a 3U CubeSat to orbit, thus becoming the lightest and smallest orbital launch vehicle ever. [9] On 6 February, SpaceX performed the much-delayed test flight of Falcon Heavy, [10] carrying a car and a mannequin to a heliocentric orbit beyond Mars. [11] Falcon Heavy became the most powerful active rocket until the maiden launch of the Space Launch System in 2022. [12] On 27 October, LandSpace launched Zhuque-1, the first privately developed rocket in China; it failed to reach orbit. [13] The company later announced that it would not repeat the launch attempt and shift its focus to the Zhuque-2 launch vehicle, making this the only launch attempt of Zhuque-1. [14] On 13 December Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reached 82.7 km, below the internationally recognized Kármán line but above the 50-mile definition of space used by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. [15] [16]

Accelerating activity

The global activity of the launch industry grew significantly in 2018. 114 launches were conducted over the full year, compared with 91 in 2017, a 25% increase. Only three missions failed fully or partially in 2018, compared with eight failures in 2017. In August, China surpassed its previous record of 22 launches in 2016, and ended the year with a total 39 launches, also more launches than any other country in 2018. The 100th orbital launch of the year occurred on 3 December, [17] exceeding all yearly tallies since the end of the Cold War space race in 1991.

Orbital and suborbital launches

List of orbital launches
MonthNum. of successesNum. of failures
January 130
February 80
March 100
April 90
May 70
June 80
July 80
August 40
September 80
October 112
November 130
December 150
Total1142

Deep-space rendezvous

Date (GMT)SpacecraftEventRemarks
7 February Juno 11th perijove of Jupiter
1 AprilJuno12th perijove
17 May TESS Gravity assist by the Moon Closest approach: 8,100 kilometres (5,000 mi)
24 MayJuno13th perijove
25 May Queqiao Moon flybyIn Earth–Moon L2 halo orbit [18]
25 May Longjiang-1 Moon flybyFailed lunar orbital injection [19]
25 May Longjiang-2 Injection into Selenocentric orbit Preliminary orbit was 350 × 13800 km, inclined 21° to the equator [20]
27 June [1] Hayabusa2 Arrival at asteroid Ryugu
16 JulyJuno14th perijove
7 SeptemberJuno15th perijove
21 September HIBOU (ROVER-1A) Landing on Ryugu
21 September OWL (ROVER-1B) Landing on Ryugu
3 October MASCOT Landing on Ryugu
3 October Parker Solar Probe First gravity assist at Venus
29 OctoberJuno16th perijove
6 NovemberParker Solar ProbeFirst perihelion Occurred at 03:28 UTC, a distance of 25 million km from the Sun. New record for the fastest spacecraft (95 km/s).
26 November InSight Arrival at Mars Successful landing at Elysium Planitia, coordinates 4°30′09″N135°37′24″E / 4.5024°N 135.6234°E / 4.5024; 135.6234 . [21]
26 November MarCO A, B Mars flybyData relays for InSight lander
3 December OSIRIS-REx Arrival at asteroid Bennu [2] Approach phase operations began on 17 August
12 December Chang'e 4 Injection into Selenocentric orbitPreliminary orbit 100 × 400 km, en route to a landing attempt on the Lunar farside [22]
21 DecemberJuno17th perijove

Extravehicular activities (EVAs)

Start Date/TimeDurationEnd TimeSpacecraftCrewRemarks
23 January
11:49
7 hours
24 minutes
19:13 Expedition 54
ISS Quest
  • Replacement of latching end effector-B (LEE-B) for the space station remote manipulator system (SSRMS)
2 February
15:34
8 hours
13 minutes
23:47 Expedition 54
ISS Pirs
  • Dismantling Lira electronics assembly
  • Installation of upgraded electronics unit
  • Jettisoning of removed unit
  • Test exposure unit retrieval
  • Biorisk retrieval
  • Foot restraint relocation
16 February
12:00
5 hours
57 minutes
17:57 Expedition 54
ISS Quest
  • Finished removal and replacement of latching end effector on POA
  • Replaced LEE camera, installed ground strap on Canadarm2
  • Brought failed LEE inside
  • Lubricated Canadarm2
  • Moved tool platform on Dextre
  • Adjusted struts on flex hose rotary coupler
29 March
13:33
6 hours
10 minutes
19:43 Expedition 55
ISS Quest
  • Node 3 external wireless antenna install
  • P1 truss ammonia jumper remove (P1-3-2 RBVM)
  • CP8 camera group replacement
  • S0 ammonia jumper relocate to ESP-1
  • APFR relocate to ESP-1
  • Bolt preps on ESP-2
16 May
11:39
6 hours
31 minutes
18:10 Expedition 55
ISS Quest
  • Relocation of two pump flow control subassembly (PFCS) units
  • Replace the camera port-13 (CP-13) external television camera group (ETVCG)
  • Replacement of the space to ground transmit/receive controller (SGTRC)
14 June
08:06 [23]
6 hours
49 minutes
14:55 Expedition 56
ISS Quest
  • Installed new cameras to monitor the approach and docking maneuvers of commercial crew spacecraft
  • Replaced a defective camera and lighting on the right side of the station
  • Closed the cover of the Cloud Aerosol Transport System instrument
15 August
16:17
7 hours
46 minutes
00:03 on 16 August Expedition 56
ISS Pirs
  • Deployed four cubesats built by Russian students
  • Installed antennas and cables for the Icarus animal-tracking device
  • Retrieved two materials exposure packages from the Zvezda hull [24]
11 December
15:59
7 hours
45 minutes
21:44 Expedition 57
ISS Pirs

Space debris events

Date/Time (UTC)Source objectEvent typePieces trackedRemarks
31 AugustCentaur upper stageUnknown80
22 December
07:12
Orbcomm
OG1 FM 16
Satellite breakup34+Orbcomm OG1 sat FM 16 disintegrated for unknown reasons. [26]

Orbital launch statistics

By country

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. As examples, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket and Electron launches from Mahia in New Zealand count as USA launches.

CountryLaunchesSuccessesFailuresPartial
failures
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 39 [b] 381 [c] 0
Flag of France.svg  France 6501 [d]
Flag of India.svg  India 77 [e] 00
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 2200
Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 6600
Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 20 [f] 191 [g] 0
Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States 34 [h] 34 [i] 00
World11411121

By rocket

10
20
30
40
R-7
UR

By family

By type

By configuration

By spaceport

10
20
30
40
China
France
India
Japan
Kazakhstan
New Zealand
SiteCountryLaunchesSuccessesFailuresPartial failuresRemarks
Baikonur Flag of Kazakhstan.svg  Kazakhstan 9810
Cape Canaveral Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States 171610
Jiuquan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 161510
Kennedy Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States 3300
Kourou Flag of France.svg  France 111001
Mahia Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 3300
MARS Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States 2200
Plesetsk Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 6600
Satish Dhawan Flag of India.svg  India 7700
Taiyuan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 6600
Tanegashima Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 4400
Uchinoura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2200
Vandenberg Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States 9900
Vostochny Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2200
Xichang Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 171700
Total11411031

By orbit

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
  •   Low Earth
  •   Low Earth (ISS)
  •   Low Earth (SSO)
  •   Low Earth (retrograde)
  •   Medium Earth
  •   Geosychronous (transfer)
  •   High Earth
  •   Heliocentric
Orbital regimeLaunchesAchievedNot achievedAccidentally
achieved
Remarks
Transatmospheric0000
Low Earth / Sun-synchronous 676430 Zuma, Soyuz MS-10 and Zhuque-1 lost
Geosynchronous / GTO 272601Ariane VA241 underperformed
Medium Earth 131300
High Earth / Lunar transfer 3300
Heliocentric / Planetary transfer 4400
Total11411031

References

Notes

  1. Clockwise from top
  2. China surpassed its previous record of 22 launches in 2016
  3. The only failure was the maiden flight of private rocket Zhuque-1.
  4. During Ariane 5 flight VA241 in January, two launched satellites were placed on an off-nominal orbit.
  5. GSAT-6A launch was a success, but the satellite failed.
  6. Includes three European Soyuz launches from Kourou, French Guiana by Arianespace.
  7. Crewed Soyuz MS-10 launch failure, two cosmonauts landed safely.
  8. Includes three Electron launches from Mahia.
  9. In January, Zuma launch was a success, satellite was reported lost but actual status is classified.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Clark, Stephen (28 June 2018). "Japanese spacecraft reaches asteroid after three-and-a-half-year journey". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  2. 1 2 Davenport, Justin (3 December 2018). "OSIRIS-REx Arrives at Asteroid Bennu". NASASpaceFlight.com . Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  3. Lyons, Kate. "Chang'e 4 landing: China probe makes historic touchdown on far side of the moon". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  4. "China successfully lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon". Archived from the original on 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  5. "Google Lunar X Prize to end without winner - SpaceNews.com". 23 January 2018.
  6. "NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Set for New Space Station Mission After Abort". 4 December 2018.
  7. Dunn, Marcia (5 August 2018). "Astronauts chosen for SpaceX, Boeing capsule flights in 2019". The Palm Beach Post . Cape Canaveral, Florida: Gannett. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021 via Newspapers.com.
  8. Grush, Loren (14 April 2015). "A 3D-Printed, Battery-Powered Rocket Engine". Popular Science. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  9. "Japanese sounding rocket claims record-breaking orbital launch – NASASpaceFlight.com". www.nasaspaceflight.com. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  10. Gebhardt, Chris (5 February 2018). "SpaceX successfully debuts Falcon Heavy in demonstration launch from KSC". NASASpaceflight. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  11. Joe Pappalardo (5 February 2018). "Elon Musk's Space Tesla Isn't Going to Mars. It's Going Somewhere More Important". Popular Mechanics.
  12. Barnett, Amanda; Wattles, Jackie. "SpaceX Falcon Heavy: How the biggest rockets in history stack up". CNNMoney. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  13. Barbosa, Rui C. (27 October 2018). "Chinese commercial provider LandSpace launches Weilai-1 on a Zhuque-1 rockets – fails to make orbit". NASASpaceFlight.com . Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  14. Jones, Andrew (12 July 2023). "China's Landspace reaches orbit with methane-powered Zhuque-2 rocket". SpaceNews . Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  15. Clyde Hughes (13 December 2018). "Virgin Galactic reaches edge of space in historic flight". UPI.
  16. Christian Davenport (19 November 2018). "Virgin Galactic's quest for space". Washington Post.
  17. Gebhardt, Chris (3 December 2018). "100th orbital launch of 2018: International trio launch to Space Station". NASASpaceFlight.com . Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  18. Jones, Andrew (1 June 2018). "Queqiao Chang'e-4 satellite performs Moon flyby, makes successful braking manoeuvre". GBTimes . Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  19. Jones, Andrew (28 May 2018). "Chang'e-4: Lunar microsatellite may be lost, Queqiao continues toward Lagrange point beyond Moon". GBTimes . Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  20. @planet4589 (27 May 2018). "So it looks like Longjiang-2 (DSLWP-B) is in a 350 x 13800 km x 21 deg lunar orbit. Longjiang-1 seems to have failed on May 21 and presumably remains in distant Earth orbit following its lunar flyby" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  21. Genhardt, Chris (26 November 2018). "NASA, international InSight mission nail PERFECT landing on Mars". NASASpaceFlight.com . Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  22. Jones, Andrew [@AJ_FI] (12 December 2018). "Chang'e-4 has just successfully entered a 100 x 400km lunar orbit, achieved at 08:39 UTC (16:39 Beijing time), following a four-and-a-half day voyage to Moon" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  23. Harwood, William (14 June 2018). "Station astronauts install new cameras on successful spacewalk". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  24. Clark, Stephen (15 August 2018). "Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  25. Bergin, Chris (11 December 2018). "Russian EVA examines hole repair area on Soyuz MS-09". NASASpaceFlight.com . Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  26. "#18SPCS confirmed breakup of ORBCOMM OG1 sat FM 16, #25417, on 22 Dec @ 0712 UTC - tracking 34 pieces - no indication caused by collision". twitter.com. 1 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
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