in 40,000 years
Voyager 1 comes within 1.6 light years of the star AC + 79 38888 of Camelopardis and is captured by its gravity (it is currently in the direction of the constellation Ofphiuco, or the direction of the Solar Apex: the direction in which the Sun
February 18, 2021
NASA’s Perseverance mission makes its entry into the Martian atmosphere, the so-called 7 minutes of terror. Everything goes according to plan, and the big rover rests gently on the ground, with the Ingenuity drone helicopter aboard. A photo of the rover is also taken while,
February 10, 2021
The Tianwen-1 mission, with the rover on board, enters orbit around Mars.
February 9, 2021
The Amal (Hope – Hope) probe of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) enters the Martian orbit.
January 18, 2020
Richard Branson’s Virgin launches a satellite into orbit from a high-flying plane.
December 5, 2020
The reentry probe of the Japanese mission Hayabusa-2 successfully lands in Australia and its precious Ryugu meteoritic soil content is brought to Japan for analysis.
November 16, 2020
Space-X successfully launches the Dragon probe with 4 NASA astronauts, which docks at the ISS space station. This is the first NASA astronaut launch on Dragon
May 30, 2020
Space X makes history by becoming the first private company to launch astronauts into space. It is also the first launch of American astronauts from American soil since 2011. The launch is carried out with the Falcon-9 and the Crew Dragon shuttle, which the next
February 6, 2020
Kazakhstan. The Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano returns to Earth after 210 days on the ISS, as commander of Expedition 61 (first Italian and third European), and after having participated in several EVAs for the repair of the AMS02 anti-matter observatory.
January 19, 2020
Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 (a specimen that had already flown 3 other times) leaves the ramp and, 90s after launch, switches off the engines deliberately, the Dragon capsule detaches and saves the virtual crew by ditching, and the first stage
April 5, 2019
The Hayabusa-2 fires a second explosive projectile, this time from a distance and copper, at the asteroid Ryugu, causing a crater about a dozen meters in diameter.
22-Feb-19
02:45 am on February 22 in Italy, at 8.45 pm on February 21 in Florida. Space X’s Falcon-9 spacecraft puts an Indonesian satellite, a USAF experimental satellite and the Israeli Beresheet private probe into orbit, which launches towards the Moon in concentric orbits. After the
January 2, 2019
The Chinese probe Chang’e 4 lands in the von Karman crater, on the far side of the moon.
December 16, 2018
The SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, of Virgin Galactic, flies over the Mojave Air and Space Port, reaching a height of 82.7 km, before landing again at the base. The pilots are Mark Stucky and CJ Sturckow.
10-Dec-18
The American probe Osiris REX arrives in orbit around the asteroid Bennu. Osiris stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, and Osiris is also a deity linked to life, fertility, death and resurrection. Bennu is a bird symbol of birth and resurrection.
January 5, 2018
John Young dies, astronaut on Apollo X, Apollo XVI (walking on the Moon with Charlie Duke), Gemini 3 and 10 and STS-1 (he is the first to fly the Space Shuttle) and STS-9
April 27, 2017
The Cassini probe crosses the plane of Saturn’s rings for the first time, from the inner side of the same. Pass unscathed and send unpublished photos. It is hit by very few and tiny micro meteorites, contrary to the initial fears that caused the main
19-Oct-16
The European Martian probe Gas Trace Orbiter, with Italian instruments to study methane emissions, fits correctly into the Martian orbit and releases the European probe Schiaparelli, with 34% of Italian technological contribution, attempts to land on Mars. The entry into the atmosphere works, as does
08-Sep-16
NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe is launched towards the asteroid Bennu. Osiris stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, and Osiris is also a deity linked to life, fertility, death and resurrection. Bennu is a bird symbol of birth and resurrection. The probe is
April 28, 2016
Russia. Vostochny Space Base (formerly Svobodny). It was decided in 1994 by Boris Yeltsin, to replace Baikonur, now in Kazakhstan. The first launch from the new ramp takes place on April 28, 2016. From other ramps they took place from 1997 onwards.
02-Apr-16
Jeff Bezos’ (Amazon’s) Blue Origin completes its third suborbital flight with the same reusable rocket, launches the parachuting capsule, and the New Shepard rocket returns landing vertically in West Texas on its predestined platform. Jeff Bezos wears his cowboy boots with the inscription Gradatum Ferociter
22-Dec-15
Cape Canaveral, Florida. Elon Musk’s Space X Falcon 9 rocket launches 9 satellites into orbit and then maneuvers and returns to Cape Canaveral making a vertical landing. This is an important milestone for space travel, making a traditional launch vector completely reusable, with Vertical Take
November 30, 2015
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origins launches and retrieves the New Shepard rocket. The rocket reaches 100Km in height, releases the capsule, and then re-enters and lands vertically in a controlled manner.
18-Oct-15
Robert W. Farquhar, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, suddenly dies of a respiratory problem at the age of 83. He was the creator of innovative, economical and spectacular NASA missions, competing with the most successful, consolidated and well-known Californian
March 6, 2015
The American probe Dawn, after having visited the asteroid Vesta, now enters orbit around the asteroid Ceres, a few months before the New Horizons arrives on Pluto, thus becoming Dawn, the first probe to visit a dwarf planet. Of Ceres, it turns out that it
07-Dec-14
The Dawn probe (US-Italy-Germany collaboration) wakes up, as scheduled, after seven years of interplanetary travel with its ion engines, takes the first photos of the Ceres planetoid to calibrate the on-board instruments. Dawn has already visited another planetoid, Vesta. Ceres is the most massive and
December 5, 2014
The American probe New Horizons (aka Pluto Express) wakes up, as planned, at 4.7 billion km and 4 hours and a half light from Earth.
December 5, 2014
The new NASA ORION system makes its first launch, bringing the probe, capable of carrying 4 astronauts, to a height of 5800Km, to then re-enter the Pacific Ocean and be fished out. The rocket is of the United Launc Alliance – ULA, derived from a
November 1, 2014
Mojave Desert, California. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo spacecraft explodes within minutes of separating from WhiteKnightTwo. It was the fourth flight. The pilot manages to jump with a parachute and arrives seriously injured on the ground. The co-pilot gets trapped in the shuttle and dies.