Space calendar for 2022: What are the main events of the year?

January 2022 – The first orbital flight of a Starship (SpaceX) rocket

Elon Musk announced it last November: SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket should make its first orbital flight at the beginning of the year. The peculiarity of this missile is that it is completely reusable and performs several types of tasks. Its first flight will obviously be unmanned, but this ship could eventually catapult tourists into space, put satellites into orbit, carry astronauts through various missions, be used for supplies, or even clean up particularly dangerous debris. In the lap of “super rockets,” we also expect to see Blue Origin’s New Glenn fly, but also and above all SLS, heir to the legendary Saturn V launcher, which should allow NASA to return to the Moon.

February – Departure of the Artemis-1 mission around the moon

This is a very symbolic mission before humans return to the Moon. There will be no astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft, which must orbit our natural satellite and return to Earth on this test flight. If all goes well, the next flight could carry humans. During this nearly three-week mission, the spacecraft will travel several hundred thousand kilometers. Orion will stay in space longer than any habitable ship without docking to a space station.

February 28 – Ax-1, the first entirely private mission to the International Space Station

In order to democratize space tourism (at least for the very wealthy), SpaceX Axiom Space-1 is a mission scheduled for February 28, 2022 to send the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). This launch will be operated by SpaceX on behalf of Axiom Space. Four tourists will take off for eight days aboard the International Space Station atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket that will lift off from Launch Complex 39-Pad A at Kennedy Space Center (Florida).

Mars – Capstone Rocket Lab’s mission to the moon

Before assembling the Gateway space station into lunar orbit as part of the Artemis program, it is necessary to ascertain the feasibility of the project. That’s where Capstone comes in, a 25kg nano-satellite that will be launched in March by an electronic rocket. It will take three months before it orbits the moon on a nine-month mission. The latter will be performed by Rocket Lab from its New Zealand location.

May – Capital test flight of the Boeing Starliner

Will the CST-100 Starliner pass the last major stages before it is fully operational? This capsule joining the International Space Station as part of the Orbital Flight Test-2 is already critical to Boeing, after the first failure that left it some distance from its competitor developed by SpaceX. Since then, Crew Dragon has been able to make its first manned flights to the International Space Station, including a round trip with Thomas Pesquet aboard. Will Boeing be able to iron out the latest details that pose a risk to the use of its devices?

June – Juice takes off towards Jupiter

The JUICE (JUpiter ICy) mission should launch in June. Filled with scientific instruments, this probe aims to analyze the icy moons of Jupiter to find out what conditions might lead to the development of life. At the head of Airbus Defense & Space, which is finalizing the assembly of the probe in Toulouse.

July – Russia launches Luna 25 . mission

Russia certainly will not allow the United States to resume its moon missions without batting an eyelid. And the country will retaliate by launching its own mission, dubbed Luna 25, in July. The Russian probe will be the first to land at the south pole of our natural satellite. If successful, Luna 25 will become the first lunar probe launched by the former Soviet Union since the Luna 24 return mission in 1976. This lunar probe will conduct numerous experiments and technical demonstrations, paving the way for future missions.

July – First data from the James Webb Space Telescope

Big event At the end of 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope will soon reach the L2 Lagrange point, its final destination. Then it will have covered more than 1 million kilometers and will still be a few months away from its operational status. From June to July, scientists will be able to analyze the first data collected by the most ambitious space telescope at the moment.

August 1 – The Psyche space probe will visit an iron asteroid

In August, NASA’s Psyche space probe will take off in the direction of the asteroid of the same name. With a diameter of more than 200 kilometers, Psyche is one of the ten largest objects in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. The presentation video of the project is impressive and allows us to understand the size of this mineral object, but its exact composition is still unknown. On the other hand, it will be necessary to wait until 2026 for the probe to enter orbit around Psyche.

September 20 – ExoMars 2022 مهمة mission

New rover on Mars, one! The ExoMars mission is first scheduled to launch in 2020, and will typically begin in September 2022. ESA will have a 12-day opportunity to launch its game into space, and the rover is expected to land on Mars on June 10, 2023. The rover mission Samples will be collected on depth of 2 meters and analyzed using new generation instruments in the on-board laboratory. In line of sight, look for traces of past life on the Red Planet.

October 2 – DART, Operation Asteroid Transform

This might be fun to follow. NASA’s DART spacecraft, which has a Earth mass of 550 kg, will collide with the asteroid Demorphos on October 2. Part of the US Space Agency’s Planetary Defense Initiative, DART is designed to study kinetic impact aimed at redirecting dangerous asteroids before they hit Earth. In short, this is the first attempt to save humanity later.

Late 2022 – the possible launch of the Euclid Space Telescope

Much has been said about the James Webb Telescope, but Europe also has another project to revive life at the end of the year. If the schedule is respected, the Euclid Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) should move towards the Lagrangian point. His observations should contribute to determining the origin of the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe, and only that, in addition to the source, is generally called dark energy. 10 billion years ago would theoretically go back, and there are a hundred European laboratories working on this task.

2022 – The completion of the Chinese Space Station (CSS)

If all goes as planned, China will complete construction of its own space station within the year. This station, which is about a fifth the size of the International Space Station, is already capable of holding astronauts for a long time, but there are still a few modules to assemble. The station, placed in a low orbit of 300-400 km, should make it possible to conduct scientific experiments in microgravity, contribute to the development of space technologies and prepare Chinese crews for long flights.

All year round – rainfall should be observed regularly with the naked eye

For our French readers, the year in the sky won’t include major events like solar eclipses, but they will have something that gives them many wishes: star showers. The most famous of these is the Perseids River, which is active between July 14 and August 24 and will see its peak activity on August 12. But many other swarms will be observed during the year if weather conditions permit. Lyrid squadron will have peak activity on April 22 2022 (about 20 meteors per hour), from Eta Aquarids May 6 (Barely 20 stars per hour), Alpha Auriginides the . Squadron 1st of Septemberthat Orionids October 21that Leonids November 17and finally the Geminid squadron December 14.