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UFO report, plans for moon landings and other moments from 2023 that rivaled even science fiction

2024-01-03 11:16:08Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
UFO report, plans for moon landings and other moments from 2023 that rivaled
SpaceX exploded over the ocean twice

Last year had some real moments in the world of science and space travel.

With SpaceX's rocket blasting off over the ocean twice and a spacecraft swinging close to Earth to drop off parts of an asteroid that may contain secrets of the solar system, some events that took place in 2023 looked like they were ripped from a science fiction novel. scientific, but actually came from humanity.

Efforts came not only from NASA or the US government but also from countries such as India and China and there are major investments from private sector businesses around the world to become part of the greatest inventions ever made.

Here are some of the biggest moments in space for 2023

The most powerful rocket ever created is launched and explodes twice

SpaceX's Starship, the rocket and spacecraft system that CEO Elon Musk envisions will carry the first humans to Mars, made two historic flight attempts this year.

The first, in April, ended when the rocket began spinning out of control and SpaceX was forced to scrap it.

The second attempt, in November, saw the 120-metre rocket go much further, successfully firing all engines and reaching the clearing but ultimately exploding.

Failures are not SpaceX's obstacle.

SpaceX is preparing the vehicle to land astronauts on the Moon for NASA as early as 2025. And Musk envisions Starship on Mars by 2029.

Starship still remains controversial among some local residents in Texas, where SpaceX has a private spaceport, after the company's operations raised concerns about the environmental impact. Meanwhile, Musk, the owner of SpaceX, continues with his desire to find a way to live on Mars.

The Moon Landings: Failures and Successes

A race to the moon is underway, and the participants so far have been robots.

The effort began in April when a private Japanese company, Ispace, attempted to land the first commercial vehicle, the Hakuto-R lander, on the moon. Finally landed in the crash.

Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, followed with another setback when its Luna-25 mission crashed on the moon's surface in August.

India's space agency followed that up a few days later with the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander on August 23.

India became the fourth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. India also became the first country to land a spacecraft in the South Pole region of the Moon.

So far in the 21st century, only China and India have had successful moon landings. (Russia and the United States have not returned to the Moon since the 1970s.)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, also has a spacecraft headed for the lunar surface, with a landing attempt expected early next year.

Spacecraft problems forced an astronaut to spend a year in space

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was expected to spend six months on the International Space Station but the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried him and two cosmonauts into orbit in September 2022 developed a coolant leak late that year and Russia was forced to delay Rubio's return by six months.

He returned in September, spending 371 days in orbit, longer than any American astronaut who has ever stayed in microgravity.

Rubio was candid about the arduous journey, noting that he probably would have turned down the mission if he'd known he'd be in space that long. But he said he spent just one day 'mourning' his time on Earth before refocusing on the mission.

Now part of US space travel history, Rubio was also at the center of a "scandal". In the spring, he received one of the first tomatoes ever grown in orbit. After losing it on board the station, he faced some doubts about whether he had eaten it.

Co-workers exonerated Rubio in December, months after he left, when they discovered they had found the missing tomato.

Space tourism is getting simpler

The world has rapidly entered an era in which a trip to space is possible for anyone who can afford it.

Space tourism began in 2023 with the Axiom-2 mission, which launched in May, carrying decorated former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and three 'customers' to the International Space Station. The crew included two astronauts from Saudi Arabia, which financed their trip, as well as John Shoffner, an American businessman.

And similar trips, estimated to cost about $55 million per country, are expected in the coming years.

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, began offering regular trips to the edges of space for wealthy explorers, finally delivering on the promise after two decades.

In 2023, Virgin Galactic made six trips to the edge of space with the suborbital space plane, carrying company employees, test pilots and customers. Flights cost around $450,000 per seat.

NASA chose the astronauts who will fly near the moon

The four astronauts who will lead the first crewed mission to the Moon in five decades were revealed in April. The historic Artemis II lunar mission is set to lift off in November 2024.

The astronauts are Reid Wiseman of NASA, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

"It's much more than just announcing names," Glover said during an April 3 ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We must celebrate this moment in human history. It's the next step in the journey that will take humanity to Mars."

The Artemis II lunar flight is expected to be the first crewed trip in a long line of missions that NASA has planned, including creating a permanent place on the Moon where astronauts can live and work. Eventually, the space agency hopes these efforts will pave the way for crewed missions to Mars.

NASA publishes its first UFO report

The US space agency made history when it created a team of experts to study unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, more commonly referred to as UFOs. And the group revealed its first findings in a September report.

The group sought to determine whether and how the mysterious phenomena could be scientifically studied.

"Recently, many credible witnesses, often military aviators, have reported seeing objects they did not recognize over US airspace," the report noted.

"Most of these events have long been explained, but a small fraction cannot be immediately identified as known man-made or natural phenomena."

The group found no strong evidence that the unexplained phenomena come from intelligent alien life.

But the report said NASA should use satellites and other instruments, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to search for more information about the phenomena.

In response, NASA announced it was appointing the first director of UAP research, with the agency's chief saying the move was the first concrete step NASA had ever taken to seek an explanation for UFOs.

These developments come as the US Department of Defense is scrambling to get a handle on the phenomena, with the Pentagon receiving dozens of UFO reports each week.

Space rock surprise

The small asteroid Dinkinesh was only intended to test systems on NASA's Lucy spacecraft as the mission zooms on its way to observe the asteroid swarms around Jupiter in the late 2020s. But the space rock was full of surprises that continue intrigue astronomers.

Lucy flew by Dinkins, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, on November 1. In the days after the flyby, images captured by the spacecraft were returned to Earth and they discovered that Dinkinesh is orbited by a smaller asteroid or two small space rocks touching each other.

"It's truly wonderful when nature surprises us with a new puzzle," Tom Statler, NASA's Lucy program scientist, said in a statement.

"Science pushes us to ask questions we never knew we needed to ask."


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