What do you remember from 2009?

With the end of the year, comes the time to stop and take stock. But what, in your opinion, were the most outstanding space events?

From a space point of view, the year 2010 will be very different from that envisaged by the famous writer Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) in his book 2010, Odyssey Two; a book which envisaged two simultaneous human space flight missions to Jupiter... It is clear that the year 2009 which is to come to an end in just a few days has not planned for such expeditions!

Look back on 2009: give us your opinion
However, the year 2009 abounds in space events worthy of interest. The Messenger probe performed a third Mercury flyby and Cassini continued to surprise us whilst exploring the Saturnine system and more particularly the moons Enceladus and Titan. Europe sent the Herschel (infrared) and Planck (cosmology) observatories into space, whereas the space shuttle STS-125 flight marked Hubble’s last service mission. The Moon took pride of place in the news more than once with the end of the Japanese Kaguya mission, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, the double LRO/LCROSS mission including the crash of the latter which confirmed the presence of water in quantity on our natural satellite. This announcement took place just after the discovery of water, but in another form, on the surface of the Moon by an international team. The International Space Station has undergone several significant steps with its last pair of solar array, the final delivery of the Japanese Kibo laboratory (STS-127), the automatic Japanese HTV cargo spaceship mission as well as the changeover to 6 permanent residents and the first European Commander. Staying with the subject of human space flights, we can note the record of 13 astronauts inside a single spacecraft (the ISS during space shuttle STS-127 flight), the recruitment of 6 new astronauts for the ESA and the American who became a father whilst in orbit. NASA tested the technologies of its future human space flight launch vehicle with Ares I-X whereas the Augustine Committee report appears to indicate significant changes in the United States space policy (the decision from the White House is expected at the beginning of 2010). We could also bring to mind the 105-day Martian mission simulation conducted in Moscow with the ESA, the launching of the French military satellite Helios 2B and the ever increasing role of satellites with regard to the study of climate changes. And yet, despite this already long list, we have not including everything!
And what about you Enjoy Space readers, what do you think was the most outstanding space event of 2009? Send us your opinion via the “Contact us” section. A summary of your comments will be published on Enjoy Space at the beginning of 2010.

In the meantime, we would like to take this occasion to wish you a very Happy New Year.

Published on 28 December 2009