2018 in spaceflight

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, and the similar OSIRIS-REx probe reached Bennu in December. 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; 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. On 6 February, SpaceX performed the much-delayed test flight of Falcon Heavy, carrying a car and a mannequin to a heliocentric orbit beyond Mars. Falcon Heavy became the most powerful active rocket until the maiden launch of the Space Launch System in 2022. On 27 October, LandSpace launched Zhuque-1, the first privately developed rocket in China; it failed to reach orbit. 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. 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.

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, exceeding all yearly tallies since the end of the Cold War space race in 1991.

Orbital and suborbital launches

Main article: List of spaceflight launches in January–June 2018, List of spaceflight launches in July–December 2018

Deep-space rendezvous

Extravehicular activities (EVAs)

Space debris events

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.

By rocket

By family

By type

By configuration

By spaceport

By orbit

References

Notes Citations

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References

1. Clark, Stephen. (28 June 2018). "Japanese spacecraft reaches asteroid after three-and-a-half-year journey". Spaceflight Now.
2. Davenport, Justin. (3 December 2018). "OSIRIS-REx Arrives at Asteroid Bennu". [[NASASpaceFlight.com]].
3. Lyons, Kate. "Chang'e 4 landing: China probe makes historic touchdown on far side of the moon". The Guardian.
4. "China successfully lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon".
5. (23 January 2018). "Google Lunar X Prize to end without winner - SpaceNews.com".
6. (4 December 2018). "NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Set for New Space Station Mission After Abort".
7. (5 August 2018). "Astronauts chosen for SpaceX, Boeing capsule flights in 2019". [[Gannett]].
8. (14 April 2015). "A 3D-Printed, Battery-Powered Rocket Engine". Popular Science.
9. (3 February 2018). "Japanese sounding rocket claims record-breaking orbital launch – NASASpaceFlight.com".
10. Gebhardt, Chris. (5 February 2018). "SpaceX successfully debuts Falcon Heavy in demonstration launch from KSC". NASASpaceflight.
11. Joe Pappalardo. (5 February 2018). "Elon Musk's Space Tesla Isn't Going to Mars. It's Going Somewhere More Important.".
12. "SpaceX Falcon Heavy: How the biggest rockets in history stack up". CNNMoney.
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]].
14. Jones, Andrew. (12 July 2023). "China's Landspace reaches orbit with methane-powered Zhuque-2 rocket".
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]].
18. Jones, Andrew. (1 June 2018). "Queqiao Chang'e-4 satellite performs Moon flyby, makes successful braking manoeuvre". [[GBTimes]].
19. Jones, Andrew. (28 May 2018). "Chang'e-4: Lunar microsatellite may be lost, Queqiao continues toward Lagrange point beyond Moon". [[GBTimes]].
20. (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".
21. Genhardt, Chris. (26 November 2018). "NASA, international InSight mission nail PERFECT landing on Mars". [[NASASpaceFlight.com]].
22. Jones, Andrew. (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".
23. Harwood, William. (14 June 2018). "Station astronauts install new cameras on successful spacewalk". Spaceflight Now.
24. Clark, Stephen. (August 15, 2018). "Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor". Spaceflight Now.
25. Bergin, Chris. (11 December 2018). "Russian EVA examines hole repair area on Soyuz MS-09". [[NASASpaceFlight.com]].
26. (2019-01-01). "#18SPCS confirmed breakup of ORBCOMM OG1 sat FM 16, #25417, on 22 Dec @ 0712 UTC - tracking 34 pieces - no indication caused by collision.".
27. Krebs, Gunter. "NROL launches". Gunter's Space Page.
28. Krebs, Gunter. "CZ-2 (Chang Zheng-2)". Gunter's Space Page.
29. Krebs, Gunter. "CZ-3 (Chang Zheng-3)". Gunter's Space Page.
30. Krebs, Gunter. "CZ-4 (Chang Zheng-4)". Gunter's Space Page.
31. Pietrobon, Steven. (19 December 2018). "Chinese Launch Manifest".
32. Pietrobon, Steven. (9 November 2018). "Ariane Launch Manifest".
33. Pietrobon, Steven. (29 November 2018). "Indian Launch Manifest".
34. Pietrobon, Steven. (28 November 2018). "Russian Launch Manifest".
35. Pietrobon, Steven. (29 November 2018). "United States Commercial LV Launch Manifest".
36. Pietrobon, Steven. (9 December 2018). "United States Military Manifest".
37. Clark, Stephen. (19 December 2018). "Launch schedule". Spaceflight Now.
38. Cooper, Ben. (19 December 2018). "Rocket Launch Viewing Guide for Cape Canaveral".
39. Krebs, Gunter. (15 February 2018). "Orbital Launches of 2018". Gunter's Space Page.
40. Krebs, Gunter. "Ariane-5ECA". Gunter's Space Page.
41. Krebs, Gunter. "Atlas-5". Gunter's Space Page.