Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 (a model that had already flown three times) leaves the pad and, 90 seconds after launch, deliberately shuts down its engines. The Dragon capsule separates and saves the virtual crew by splashing down. The Falcon 9’s
After half a century, some lunar soil samples taken in December 1972 by the Apollo 17 astronauts have been reopened. They had been left sealed at the time, awaiting future times when analysis techniques would be more advanced.
India launches Chandrayaan-2 toward the Moon, the day after the 50th anniversary of its first steps on the Moon. The launch vehicle is the Mark III (GSLV M III).
Luca Parmitano returns to the ISS for Expedition 60. It marks the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.
In July 2019, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that it was planning to deorbit Tiangong-2 in the near future, but did not provide a specific date. The station subsequently performed a controlled reentry on July 19, 2019, and burned up in the South
Hayabusa-2 successfully lands on asteroid Ryugu for the second time to collect a second sample, this time in area C01, where it created a 10-meter-diameter crater on April 5. The sample will then be returned to Earth in Australia for examination by Japanese scientists.
The giant Stratolaunch space transport system completes its first test flight.
Space X launches Falcon Heavy, which successfully orbits ArabSat. All three boosters land safely (two simultaneously on the ground a few dozen meters apart, and one offshore in the ocean, on the “Of Course I Still Love You” pad, named after Iain Banks’s science fiction
The Israeli Beresheet probe fails to soft-land on the Moon, and crashes due to excessive speed.
Hayabusa-2 fires a second explosive projectile, this time from a distance and made of copper, at the asteroid Ryugu, creating a crater a dozen meters in diameter.
A serious malfunction in the new MAX8 attitude control software for the Boeing 737 MAX causes the crash of a plane in Ethiopia, killing everyone on board, among other incidents. Government agencies in Europe, the United States, Canada, and other countries, within days, order the
Richard Branson’s British Virgin Galactic has sent its first paying passenger into space on a suborbital flight. It’s the second flight in two months for the reusable Unity spacecraft. The ticket price is $250,000.
Cambridge, UK. Tony Foulds, 83, is present as several USAF planes fly past in formation, along with thousands of people. They remember the event 75 years earlier, when Tony, an eight-year-old boy, was there in that meadow, and a B-17 (Flying Fortress) was returning from
2:45 a.m. on February 22nd in Italy, 8:45 p.m. on February 21st in Florida. Space X’s Falcon-9 launcher launches an Indonesian satellite, an experimental USAF satellite, and Israel’s private Beresheet probe, which launches toward the Moon in concentric orbits. After launch, the launcher is recovered,
February 21, 11:58 PM in Italy, February 22, 7:58 AM in Japan. The Japanese probe Hayabusa-2 successfully lands on the asteroid Ryugu, fires a small tantalum projectile, collects surface samples, and lifts off into a high orbit. The operation is broadcast live on Japanese television.
China’s Chang’e 4 probe lands in von Karman crater on the far side of the Moon.
The United States passes the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA), which restricts the export of certain goods, particularly next-generation semiconductor technologies for the manufacture of electronic chips.
Syria. After an Iranian drone crossed into the Israeli Golan Heights, Tel Aviv responded with an unprecedented bombing raid on government and Iranian positions in southwest Syria. One of the Israeli F-16s was shot down upon its return. The two pilots survived, but one was
Deir Ezzor, Syria. A group of Russian militiamen (the Russian army officially withdrew in December 2017) and Syrian government forces crossed the Euphrates and headed toward the Coneco oil plant, under Kurdish control. The U.S. Air Force intervened, resulting in over 300 deaths, over 200
Paolo Nespoli returns to Earth on the Soyuz, after 139 days on the ISS. At 60 years old and on his third mission to the ISS, this is a record for Italy.
Sinai, Egypt. ISIS-led terrorist attack targeting hundreds of Sufis (a mystical branch of Islam) gathered in prayer. 305 people died, including 27 children.
Earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale in southwestern Mexico.
The Russian-backed Syrian army broke the siege of the Deir ez-Zor military zone in eastern Syria, a siege that had lasted more than three years by ISIS.
China breaks record for “Action at a Distance via Entanglement,” taking a step toward a Quantum Internet. Results from the Micius satellite test quantum entanglement, paving the way for hack-proof global communications. A team of Chinese scientists using an experimental satellite tested quantum entanglement over
Saudi Arabia. US President Donald Trump (unlike his predecessor, Barack Obama) is welcomed personally by the sovereign with the highest honors, including a sword dance. Arms contracts worth $110 billion are signed.
The Cassini probe crossed Saturn’s ring plane for the first time, from the inner side. It passed unscathed and sent back previously unseen photos. It was struck by a handful of tiny micrometeorites, contrary to initial fears that had caused the main antenna to move
Stockholm, Sweden. A recently stolen truck hits several people on a pedestrian walkway, and then its driver crashes it into the entrance of a mall. The explosives aboard the truck fail to detonate. Four people are killed and dozens injured. The attacker is captured the
St. Petersburg, Russia. A Kyrgyz suicide bomber detonates himself inside a moving subway car. The driver drives the vehicle to the next station, thus facilitating rescue efforts. The explosion kills 14 and injures 45.
Syria. The Syrian Air Force carried out three attacks using chemical weapons: sarin and/or chlorine. This was determined, after extensive investigations, on April 8, 2020, by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. 106 people lost their lives in the Syrian village of Latamine.
Syria. A Syrian Su-22 bomber from the 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Air Force, taking off from Shayrat Airbase, dropped an M4000 sarin bomb on Latamina, killing 60 people.
Syria. A Syrian military helicopter departing from the Hama base drops a drum of explosives containing chlorine on the Latamina hospital. Thirty people die.
Syria. A Syrian Su-22 bomber from the 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Air Force, taking off from Shayrat Airbase, dropped an M4000 sarin bomb on Latamina, killing 16 people.
London. A car driven by Khalid Masood hits 11 people on Westminster Bridge and then crashes into the metal gates of Parliament. He is killed by police.
British American Tobacco (BAT) acquires full control of Reynolds, purchasing a 57.8% stake in the company in a $49.4 billion deal. BAT, which already owned brands such as MS, Lucky Strike, Dunhill, Kent, and Rothmans, also acquires Camel and Newport.
Milan. Anis Amri, the Tunisian who carried out the attack in Berlin a few days earlier, is stopped by Italian police for a check. He pulls out a gun and wounds one officer, while the other officer, who had only been on the force for
Raqqa, Syria. The “Wrath of the Euphrates” offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) capital, Raqqa, begins. This was announced at a press conference by Jihan Seikh Hasan, Kurdish spokesman for the SDF and YPG. The forces, numbering over 30,000 fighters, are 80% civilians
New York. Several homemade explosive devices are found in Manhattan and New Jersey. One injures 28 people when it explodes, others are defused by law enforcement, and still others are detonated by robots. The perpetrator, Ahmad Khan Rahami, is captured after two days of investigation,
Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket explodes on the ground during a test procedure. Facebook’s satellite is destroyed.
Jarabulus (Northern Syria). Turkish tanks enter Northern Syria and capture the city of Jarabulus, previously held by the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh). This operation is intended to reclaim it from the US-backed Kurdish militias and prevent the formation of a contiguous Kurdish zone extending
Amatrice, central Italy. An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale strikes overnight. Numerous buildings collapse, and 295 people die.
Impresub recovers the Libyan vessel that sank at a depth of 370 meters, with hundreds of bodies on board.
Afghanistan. Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour is killed by a US drone strike. The news is confirmed by the US State Department and the Taliban. Mansour had assumed office following the death of Mullah Omar a year earlier.
Somalia. A US drone strike killed as many as 150 jihadists at an al-Shabab training camp. A total of 200 jihadists were believed to be training at the camp.
Jakarta, Indonesia. A group of suicide bombers detonated bombs in different parts of the city. Firefights with security forces ensued. Two civilians and five attackers died. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
The USS Zumwalt sets sail. It’s a destroyer with a very low radar signature, all-electric, and an electromagnetic railgun capable of striking 110 miles away with rounds firing at Mach 7. The commander could only be James Kirk.
Sinai. A Russian passenger plane loaded with tourists explodes and breaks apart in mid-flight. All aboard die: 224 victims. Responsibility and investigations point to ISIS.
Hawijia, south of Kirkuk, Iraq. A helicopter operation by American Delta Force soldiers and Kurdish YPG forces leads to the liberation of 70 ISIS prisoners. One American soldier dies in the operation.
Volkswagen admits to falsifying pollution tests for its cars in the United States. The admission comes after evidence was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Eleven million cars are affected, and the company faces an $18 billion fine. Shares in Frankfurt fell 18%
A wave of migrants from the Middle East, hundreds of thousands in just a few weeks, particularly from the conflict in Syria, is pouring into Central Europe via the Balkan Peninsula. The route begins with landings on the Greek islands and winds through Macedonia, Serbia,
France. A terrorist attack by a Moroccan, Ayoub el Qhazzani, 26, armed with a Kalashnikov, on a high-speed train traveling between Belgium and France. The intervention of two plainclothes American soldiers and a British man prevented the worst: the man was immobilized, but not before
Tianjin Port. Northern China. Two massive explosions, separated by about 30 seconds, rock the city. More than 100 people died and hundreds were injured. The scene was devastated across a vast area, with hundreds of crumpled containers lying everywhere. Some have suggested that firefighters’ water
The United States Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.
Charleston, South Carolina. The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston is the scene of a massacre in which nine people are killed. The perpetrator, a white fanatic named Dylann Roof, is captured the next morning.
Northern Iraq. Abu Alaa Afri (also known as Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohamed) is killed in a coalition airstrike. He is the former number two in ISIS and its current leader, following the incapacity of al-Baghdadi, who was wounded in a previous US raid a few
Garland, Texas. Shooting at a cartoon contest featuring the Prophet Muhammad. The attackers targeted the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, where a “contest” was underway, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which had offered $10,000 for the best (negative) drawing
Northern Iraq. News becomes public that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS’s leader, has been wounded in the spine by a US airstrike. Al-Baghdadi is unable to continue his role and is replaced by Abu Alaa Afri (also known as Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohamed). The airstrike against
A boat carrying illegal immigrants, with between 750 and 950 people aboard, capsized and sank. Most were trapped in the hold and drowned. Italian Navy vessels rescued 28 people. Witnesses reported 950 people on board. This was the largest tragedy in the Mediterranean.
Tikrit, Iraq. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the King of Clubs in the Pentagon’s 2003 Most Wanted card list, is killed by the Iraqi army during the occupation of Tikrit, which was wrested from the Islamic State. He was Saddam Hussein’s successor as leader of the Baath
Lausanne. After numerous delays, negotiations between the Americans and Iranians have reached an agreement on a general framework. This framework includes, among other things, reducing Iran’s centrifuges from over 19,000 to 6,104, limiting uranium enrichment to above 3.67% for at least 15 years, and reducing
Garissa, Kenya. Al-Shabaab Islamic extremists kill 147 students, wound hundreds more, and kidnap hundreds more at the local university. Students identified as Christians are killed on the spot, sometimes beheaded.
Bardhere, Somalia. Al-Shabaab Islamist militia commander Adan Garar was killed along with two others while in his car. He was hit by a missile from a US drone. He was suspected of masterminding several attacks, including one on a department store in Mandera, Kenya, which
The American probe Dawn, after visiting the asteroid Vesta, is now entering orbit around the asteroid Ceres, a few months before New Horizons arrives at Pluto, thus becoming the first probe to visit a dwarf planet. Ceres was thus discovered to be spherical and to
Moscow. Putin’s political opponent, Boris Nemtsov, 55, is killed by four gunshots a few hundred meters from the Kremlin. Just a few weeks earlier, he had said in an interview that Putin wanted him dead. Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin immediately took control of the
Derna, Libya. The Islamic State’s capital in Libya was targeted by a ground attack by Egyptian special forces, who captured 55 IS members.
Nigeria. In a series of coordinated attacks on 16 Christian villages, the Islamist group Boko Haram has caused several hundred deaths, reportedly as many as 2,000. Thirty thousand people have been displaced. It is also threatening neighboring Cameroon, after its regular troops killed dozens of
Radaa, south of Sanaa, Yemen. An al-Qaeda suicide attack on the residence of Shiite leader Abdullah Idris killed 10 fighters and also hit two school buses loaded with girls. 15 girls died.
Peshawar, Pakistan. Seven members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Islamic sect attacked the Army Public School, where hundreds of children of Pakistani soldiers study. They killed 148 people, including 132 students between the ages of 8 and 18. The Pakistani army intervened immediately, killing the seven terrorists
Sydney, Australia. Man Haron Monis, a heavily armed Muslim preacher of Iranian origin, held 45 people hostage inside a Sydney bar. After nearly 24 hours, Australian gunmen intervened. The shootout ended in about 30 seconds. Louisa Hope, who was being used as a human shield