Space Highlights 2023

Robotic missions

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a particularly game-changing mission in April with the JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE). The spacecraft will visit Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, three moons of Jupiter with an icy exterior that scientists hope could hold a liquid ocean interior. Any evidence of these potential oceans would further heighten the possibilities of life existing on these moons. JUICE will arrive at the Jovian system in 2031, with scientists at the University of Leicester amongst those set to study its findings.

India became the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, and the first to do so near its south pole, with the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. A follow on from its failed predecessor, Chandrayaan-3 consisted of a lander and a rover, touching down on 23 August. After completing its initial objectives, including a ‘hop’ on the lunar surface as a test for potential future return missions, the spacecraft was put into sleep mode on 3 September, failing to wake up again when prompted three weeks later.

Not to be left out, NASA launched its big mission of the year, Psyche, on 13 October. The craft will take a closer look at 16 Psyche, a metallic asteroid that scientists believe may be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet, stripped of its mantle and crust. Psyche will begin orbiting and studying its namesake asteroid in 2029.

2023 also saw spacecrafts arrive at their destinations, and even return home. NASA’s Lucy mission, launched in 2021, completed a flyby of 152830 Dinkinesh, making it the smallest main-belt asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft at just 790m in diameter. And the space agency’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully returned a sample to Earth from asteroid 101955 Bennu. Following the competition of this primary goal, the spacecraft will now look to complete a flyby of another asteroid under the name OSIRIS-APEX.

Human spaceflight

Two new world records (errr, space records) were set this May!

On 25 May, Virgin Galactic’s Unity 25 flight sent six people above 80 kilometres high - the United States’ definition of the start of space (but below the 100 kilometre mark used for the Karman line’s definition). Using the former, it means a record twenty people were in space for those few moments, with three astronauts onboard on the Chinese Tiangong Space Station and an additional eleven on the International Space Station (seven from Expedition 69 and four from the commercial Axiom programme).

Five days later, and an additional three astronauts boarded Tiangong (readying for crew rotation), meaning another record of seventeen people in orbit simultaneously was set between the two space stations.

One of the ISS Axiom astronauts at this time was Peggy Whitson, who further extended her American record of 675 total days in space by an additional eight days. Also on this mission was Rayyanah Barnawi, who became the first ever female Saudi astronaut and the first Arab woman in space.

In other exciting space firsts, Sultan Al-Neyadi became the first Arab to complete both a spacewalk and a six-month mission on the ISS. And Andreas Mogensen returned for a second ISS mission in August, becoming the first non-American to pilot a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.