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| Designation |
Date |
Country |
Event |
|---|---|---|---|
Progress M-59/24P |
Jan 18 | Russia | Uncrewed logistics cargo/resupply mission to the International Space Station ISS, on a Soyuz-U rocket. |
THEMIS 1-5 |
Feb 17 | United States | Five identical “Time History of Events & Macro-scale Interactions during Sun-storms” probes to uncover the physics that powers the Earth polar auroras. |
Soyuz TMA-10IISS-14S |
April 7 | Russia | Ninth ISS crew rotation flight on a Soyuz-FG, bringing the Expedition 15 crew of Fyodor Yurchikhin & Oleg Kotov, plus 5th SFP (spaceflight participant) Charles Simonyi. |
AIM |
April 25 | United States | “Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere” satellite launched on a Pegasus-XL into a 600 km orbit to study noctilucent or “night-shining” clouds (NLCs). |
Progress M-60/25P |
May 12 | Russia | Uncrewed logistics cargo/resupply mission to the ISS, on a Soyuz-U rocket. |
STS-117 (Atlantis) |
June 8 | United States | ISS Mission 13A with the S3/S4 truss elements for assembly, ISS crewmember Clay. Anderson to replace Sunita Williams on Expedition 15. Duration: 13d 20h 12 min. |
Genesis-2 |
June 28 | Russia | Demo flight of Bigelow Aerospace inflatable module for a future space station, on a Dnepr rocket. |
Progress M-61/26P |
Aug 2 | Russia | Uncrewed logistics cargo/resupply mission to the ISS, on a Soyuz-U rocket. |
Phoenix |
Aug 4 | United States | Launch of new Mars lander using Surveyor 2001 parts on a Delta-2, for a first-time landing in the north-polar region of the Red Planet in May 2008. |
STS-118 (Endeavour) |
Aug 8 | United States | ISS Mission 13A.1 with a new truss element (P5) to resume station assembly. Crew includes teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan. Mission duration: 12d 17h 57min. |
Kayuga |
Sept 14 | Japan | Launch of SELENE (SELenological & ENgineering Explorer) moon probe on an H-2A carrier.. |
Dawn |
Sept 27 | United States | Launch of NASA’s ion-propelled probe on a Delta-2 to explore the Asteroid Belt, on a 4.8 billion-km flight targeted for Vesta (2011) and Ceres (2015). |
Soyuz TMA-11IISS-15S |
Oct 10 | Russia | Tenth ISS crew rotation flight on a Soyuz-FG, bringing the Expedition 16 crew of Peggy Whitson & Yuri Malenchenko, plus 6th SFP Muszaphar Shukor (Malaysia). |
STS-120 (Discovery) |
Oct 23 | United States | ISS Mission 10A with the Node-2 “Harmony” module, ISS crewmember Dan Tani to replace Clay Anderson on Exp. 16; four EVAs. Total mission duration: 15d 2h 24min. |
Chang’e-1 |
Oct 24 | China | Launch of China’s first probe to explore the Moon from lunar orbit, on a CZ-3 rocket. |
| Progress M-62/27P | Dec 23 | Russia | Uncrewed logistics cargo/resupply mission to the ISS, on a Soyuz-U rocket. |