From commercial crew to a flood of Mars missions, 2020 promises to be an exciting year for spaceflight. Companies and space agencies alike have a series of interesting missions on deck for the year, from returning lunar samples to studying the sun up close.
Be sure to check out the list of highlights below, and to go for our 2020 launch calendar for more details on exact dates and times for each mission as the launch date approaches.
This could finally be the year when NASA’s astronauts fly to space in commercial crew vehicles.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner are expected to bring the first astronauts to space in the coming year, although exact launch dates haven’t been announced yet. Both spacecraft are still in testing mode to make them as safe as possible for humans.
Starliner had a major milestone in December when it launched an uncrewed test flight, although the spacecraft did not reach the ISS due to burning too much fuel during launch. SpaceX flew a successful uncrewed Crew Dragon flight to the station in March 2018, and is also preparing for an in-flight abort test in January. That SpaceX In-Flight Abort test will launch no earlier than Jan. 11.
The Solar Orbiter – a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency – is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Feb. 5.
The spacecraft is expected to get as close as 0.28 astronomical units to the sun, which is well within the orbit of Mercury, to better study how the sun works. (One astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and Earth.) This mission is expected to last seven years.
Mars 2020 and 3 others launching in July
With Mars coming close in its orbit to Earth in 2020, July is a prime launching time for an incredible four missions to the Red Planet.
On July 17, NASA will launch its long-awaited Mars 2020 rover to explore possible sites of ancient habitability, while the European Space Agency and Russia plan to do the same with their ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover on July 25.
The goal is to create a small launcher that can launch frequently and with few people, to save on operations cost and complications. In 2020, it will launch its first commercial mission with four Earth observation satellites for BlackSky Global.
All SSLVs will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.
SpaceX Starlink, Falcon Heavy and Starship
SpaceX plans to kick off 2020 with another batch of its Starlink satellites, which are meant to provide global connectivity in broadband. Starlink may eventually comprise as many as 42,000 individual vehicles circling the Earth.
In addition to Starlink and Crew Dragon, SpaceX has a two other ongoing rocket programs. The company’s heavy-lift Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in use today, may launch a mission for the U.S. Air Force in late 2020, according to Spaceflight Now.
SpaceX is also expected to continue development work on its Starship Mk 3 prototype for deep-space missions.
The country wants to send a sample of the moon back to Earth for analysis, following on to its highly successful Chang’e-4 mission that put a lander and a rover safely on the far side of the moon. Its landing site is Mons Rümker, a mountain nearby a large basaltic lunar area called Oceanus Procellarum. If Chang’e-5 succeeds, it will be the first mission to bring back samples of the moon since the last Apollo mission of 1972.
The U.S. Air Force is expected to, sometime in 2020, once again launch the mysterious X-37B space plane (also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle).
This will be the sixth mission of the uncrewed vehicle, which can stay in space for up to a year at a time to perform its secret work. In 2019, one of Air Force’s two known X-37 spacecraft returned to Earth after a record-breaking 780-day spaceflight. That’s more than two years in space.
The Air Force usually discusses only the overall goals of the program, because it classifies each payload: “Reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth,” states an X-37B fact sheet produced by the Air Force.
Those flights, potentially slated for mid-year, will launch passengers from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the home of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo fleet and its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo. Virgin Galactic is offering suborbital spaceflights for passengers at $250,000 per ticket.
Virgin Galactic currently has one SpaceShipTwo, the VSS Unity, and a single carrier plane the VMS Eve. The company is building a second spacecraft now. SpaceShipTwo vehicles can carry up to eight people, two pilots and six passengers.
The New Shepard spacecraft consists of a reusable booster and crew capsule designed to fly up to six people, or the equivalent weight in experiments, to suborbital space at a time. The booster launches and lands vertically, with the capsule returning to a land-based landing under parachutes.
To date, Blue Origin has flown 12 New Shepard missions, with the last six flying on the same booster and capsule. Ariane Cornell, director of Blue Origin’s astronaut and orbital sales, has said the company needs a “couple of more” flights to be ready for crewed missions.
While Blue Origin has said it will fly passengers on suborbital trips, it has not stated how much a seat will cost.
Virgin Orbit
Virgin Galactic isn’t the only company expecting to make a space leap in 2020. Its sister company Virgin Orbit aims to begin orbital launches during the year.
Virgin Orbit is a small-satellite launch company that aims to launch payloads into orbit using LauncherOne. The rocket is an air-launched booster carried into launch position by a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet called Cosmic Girl.
In July 2019, Virgin Orbit successfully performed a drop test of its LauncherOne rocket after a series of captive carry shakedown tests. The first launch from Virgin Orbit is expected to take off from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port and launch from a position over the Pacific Ocean.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
