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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The moon, asteroids and the latest rockets topped the world’s space news in 2023.
Elon Musk’s monster rocket exploded again after reaching space on its second test flight. India successfully landed on the moon, surpassing Russia who crashed. And NASA brought back the first sample of the asteroid.
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These are just some of the cosmic events of 2023. And he will have even more to come in 2024.
moon mania
The moon is the hottest ticket in town, with private companies from Russia, India and Japan attempting to land on it in 2023. Only India won, becoming the fourth country. Two American companies and the space agencies of China and Japan are aiming for a touchdown as early as January. To kick off 2023, NASA introduced four astronauts scheduled to fly around the moon at the end of 2024. Three of them are American and one is Canadian. A different crew is actually scheduled to land, but the timing is unclear.
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Rocket debut
SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launched twice from South Texas in 2023, exploding both times and scattering it across the Gulf of Mexico. The second test flight continued twice as far, flying 93 miles (150 kilometers). SpaceX wants to fly an empty spacecraft around the world before adding more satellites or personnel. NASA’s next moonwalker will need a Starship to reach the moon’s surface. Three other rockets are scheduled to debut in 2024: United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan with its lunar module, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, the company’s first orbital-class rocket, and a European variant. It’s an Ariane 6 rocket.
asteroid autumn
NASA claimed it as an asteroid fall. In September, the OSIRIS-REX spacecraft delivered a bundle of debris collected from the asteroid Bennu. A few weeks later, the Psyche spacecraft set off on a six-year voyage to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. Then, in November, the Lucy spacecraft soared past the first asteroid in its crowded itinerary and discovered a small moon made up of two fused spheres. Laboratory workers in Houston are still trying to pry open a sample container from an asteroid that landed in the Utah desert. So far, scientists have removed 2.5 ounces (70 grams) of Bennu’s black dust and rock debris.
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Space travel
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic began taking tourists on short rides into space in 2023 and has completed five customer launches in less than five months from New Mexico. A few more are planned before the company retires in mid-2024 and develops rocket ships that can fly more people more often. Musk’s SpaceX made its second private trip to the International Space Station and plans to operate more charter flights and conduct its first private spacewalk. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin hasn’t launched a passenger since its experimental New Shepard rocket crashed in Texas in 2022.
Celestial object close-up
The James Webb Space Telescope has released spectacular shots of the star-forming region closest to Earth, marking its first year of space photography. Next, Hubble made new observations of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant previously photographed, and contributed to the discovery of Goliath, the oldest black hole in history, which formed 470 million years after the Big Bang. “James Webb continues to do extraordinary things for us,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Thirty years after an astronaut regained his sight on one of the most thrilling shuttle missions in history, Hubble continues to churn out its own fascinating shots.
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solar eclipse
In October, the Americas enjoyed a “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse, an appetizer to the total solar eclipse scheduled for April. The sun, moon, and Earth lined up to create a “ring fire” solar eclipse from Oregon to Texas and parts of Central and South America. The moon was too far from Earth to completely obscure the sun, but it will be just the right distance on April 8th. The total solar eclipse will begin in Mexico and move northeast through Texas and Arkansas, the Midwest, upstate New York, and New Jersey. UK and Canada.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Education Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.
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