Year Ender 2021: First Flight On Mars, Touching The Sun, Webb Launch — NASA's Big Year

In 2021, NASA made progress on its Artemis plans for the Moon, and had a very active year exploring space, studying Earth, and testing technologies for next-generation aircraft.

James Webb Space Telescope (top left) ; NASA SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts (top right), Artist's impression of Parker Solar Probe (bottom left); Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars (bottom right) (Photos: NASA)

New Delhi: The year 2021 has been one of the busiest years for NASA in low-Earth orbit. The space agency also made progress on its Artemis plans for the Moon, and had a very active year exploring space, studying Earth, and testing technologies for next-generation aircraft.
On Christmas day, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built, lifted off into space to unravel the secrets of the universe.
Following are some of NASA's most interesting feats in 2021:

Solar System And Beyond

The year 2021 was a remarkable one for NASA in space exploration.

Mars Landing: In February 2021, the Perseverance Rover landed on Mars, and later collected and sampled its first rock core. The sample will be retrieved and returned to Earth by a future mission. The two-year science investigation of Mars' Jezero Crater is studying the rock and sediment of Jezero's ancient lakebed and river delta.

TESS Performs Wonders: The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) helped discover a trio of hot worlds in February. The three planets, called TOI451b, TOI451c, and TOI451d, are larger than Earth and are orbiting a much younger version of our Sun.

First Flight on Mars: The ingenuity helicopter became the first aircraft to make a powered controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity recently completed more than 30 minutes of cumulative flight time. It took its first flight on April 19, and its last flight on December 15.

Creating Oxygen on Another Planet: Perseverance's Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization (MOXIE) instrument converted Mars' thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen for the first time, in April.

Lucy Mission: The space agency also sent the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.

First Planet Outside Milky Way Discovered: The Chandra X-ray Observatory detected signs of a planet crossing in front of a star outside the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time.

DART Mission: NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a first-of-its-kind mission to investigate and demonstrate a method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space. The DART spacecraft was launched on November 24, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. This was NASA's first planetary defense test mission.

IXPE Mission: NASA sent a wide array of science missions to space, including the first mission to study the polarisation of X-rays, which is called the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission.
Parker Solar Probe's Marvels: The Parker Solar Probe provided stunning views of Venus during a close flyby. Parker became the first spacecraft in history to touch the Sun, flying through and sampling the environment in the Sun's upper atmosphere.
James Webb Space Telescope: The NASA James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built, was launched into space on Christmas day. The $10 space-based infrared observatory is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and the first-of-its-kind. The primary goal of the telescope will be to study galaxy, star, and planet formation in the Universe.
Webb will cover longer wavelengths of light than Hubble, which will enable the telescope to look further back in time to see the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe.

Earth Science

In 2021, NASA continued research in climate and Earth science to show how the planet is changing.
Earth System Observatory: The space agency announced a new Earth System Observatory that will provide important information to guide efforts related to climate change, disaster mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes, the space agency said on its website.
Landsat 9: Landsat 9, NASA's 'New Eye In The Sky', is a satellite built to monitor Earth's land surface and resources, and the latest in the Landsat series. The NASA satellite will extend a record of Earth observations spanning five decades.
It is a joint effort between NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The Landsat satellites have provided an unprecedented visual record of Earth's landscapes, icescapes, and coastal waters, in the form of nine million scenes.

Humans In Space

The year 2021 was the 21st continuous year of human presence aboard the International Space Station, and the busiest for human spaceflight at the ISS in a decade.
Crew-1 Mission: The splashdown of the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission marked the completion of the first operational commercial crew flight to the station. It was also the first night time launch of a US crew spacecraft, since Apollo 8 in 1968.
Crew-2 Mission: The NASA SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the first commercial crew mission to fly two international partners. The astronauts spent a record 199 days in space.

Inspiration4 Astronauts Launched From NASA's Kennedy Space Center: In September, four amateur astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Hayley Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Sian Proctor — made history after spending three days in space, as part of the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission, which is the world's first all-civilian mission to Earth orbit. The four civilians blasted off into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Crew-3 Mission: In November, four astronauts arrived at the ISS as part of the NASA SpaceX Crew-3 mission. During the six-months long mission, the astronauts, who are a part of Expedition 66, will perform scientific experiments.
Record Spacewalks Completed: Astronauts and cosmonauts completed 13 spacewalks outside the space station — the most in a year since 2010.
Private Astronaut Missions To ISS: NASA announced the first two private astronaut missions to the ISS. The missions are called Axiom 1 and Axiom 2.

Plans For Commercial Space Station: NASA awarded more than $400 billion to three private aerospace firms — Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Corporation, and Nanoracks to build privately-owned and operated commercial space stations. These commercial destinations are part of NASA's efforts to enable a robust American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit.

Moon To Mars

NASA is targeting launch of Artemis I, an uncrewed flight test of the agency's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) Rocket, and Orion spacecraft. The Artemis I mission will travel around the Moon in March or April 2021.
The space agency fuelled the Orion spacecraft and attached it to its launch abort system before stacking it on SLS.

NASA successfully completed the green run test of the SLS Artemis I core stage at the Stennis Space Center.
The space agency also performed activities to support the agency's Moon to Mars exploration approach, including preparations towards future Artemis missions, namely Artemis II and Artemis III.

NASA also completed the first of many propulsion system ground tests to ensure the Power and Propulsion Element for Gateway, the planned lunar outpost. Japan became the third nation to support the development of Gateway.

Flight

NASA tested several technologies for next generation aircraft in 2021.

Sustainable Flight National Partnership: NASA teamed up with industry, academia, and other government agencies to launch the Sustainable Flight National Partnership. This aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from aviation by 2050.
X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology: The X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology aircraft continued assembly at Lockheed Martin. This aircraft will demonstrate technology to fly faster than sound. The data gathered by X-59 may open the future to commercial supersonic flight over land.