Spaceflight

History was made today when Axiom Mission 1, the first private crewed mission to the International Space Station, lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:17 am EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space exploration in 2021 will see some major milestones to look forward to. From maiden flights to fiery endings, long-awaited launches to history-making first steps, here are some of the biggest upcoming events in space exploration this year.

A review team has concluded its investigation of NASA and Boeing’s failed Starliner launch last year. Some 80 recommendations for future missions were put forward across several categories. Both organizations also conducted internal investigations.

Blue Origin's New Shepard booster completed its 12th successful test flight on December 11, marking the first time a booster has made six consecutive missions. At 11:53 am CDT, the single-stage rocket lifted off for a 10 min 16 sec flight.

When it comes to space travel, and space in genera​l, 2018 has been a busy year. It was one marked by remarkable technological firsts, dramatic incidents, and new milestones set. Oh, and space champagne. So, let's look back on the highlights of the year in space, 2018.

For over a century people have floated the idea of a space elevator – which is exactly what it sounds like – but the logistics of that just aren’t possible yet. Now Japan has launched a pair of satellites to test out some technologies that might help make a space elevator a reality in future.

Humanity’s first “space nation”, Asgardia, is a step closer to getting off the ground after its first satellite was launched last week. The end goal is for millions of people to live on satellites, but don’t pack your bags just yet: Asgardia-1 is just a CubeSat carrying 500 GB of pictures and text.

There's a new benchmark for homegrown heroes and their action-cam videos, courtesy of UP Aerospace. Having strapped a GoPro to the outside of its SpaceLoft-10 sounding rocket the company launched it into the thermosphere, gathering some footage that's simply out of this world along the way.

Dezso Molnar is living his childhood dream, travelling America and the world as a wandering inventor. He’s in the process of starting up a flying car racing league, into which he’ll enter his own flying motorcycle.

Incidents, including last year's Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crash, have led some politicians in New Mexico to question the future of Spaceport America, where Virgin is an anchor tenant, and to even call for the US$200 million facility to be put up for sale.

As the unmanned CRS-5 spacecraft rose into orbit to resupply the International Space Station, the first stage of its Falcon 9 booster made an historic attempt at a powered landing on a drone barge positioned in the Atlantic Ocean, which did not come off successfully.

Even though the investigations into the SpaceShipTwo incident are only beginning, there are those who already claim that Sir Richard Branson’s dream of sending tourists on suborbital flights into space is as dead as the Hindenburg. But is it?