NASA Returns To The Moon And ‘JUICE’ To Jupiter: 11 Incredible Space Missions In 2022 You Need To Know About
What does NASA have planned for 2021 other than the commissioning of the Webb telescope? What about SpaceX and Blue Origin? With the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars, the launch of the Lucy and DART missions, and the Juno probe’s continuing incredible work at Jupiter, 2021 was a spectacular success. Expect the same, but different in the next 12 months, with a bigger focus on our nearest neighbor—the Moon.
Here’s everything you need to know about space exploration, NASA missions and space tourism in 2022:NASA’s Artemis-1 mission around the Moon
When: March, 2022
Delayed from 2021 and recently put back a month, Artemis-1 is an un-crewed flight test mission during which NASA’s Orion spacecraft, European Service Model (ESM) and NASA’s as-yet-untested Space Launch System (SLS)—the most powerful rocket in the world—will fly beyond the Moon. They will launch, orbit the Earth, and then send Orion and the ESM to enter an elliptical orbit of the Moon that will see them get to within 62 miles above its surface and about 40,000 miles beyond it. It’s a precursor to the crewed Artemis-3 mission that will land on the Moon in 2024 or 2025.
A private mission to the ISS
After the success of the Inspiration-4 mission in 2021 private spaceflight company Axiom has a contract with SpaceX to launch four crewed missions to the ISS. All will use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets and Crew Dragon spacecraft. The first Ax-1, will launch in 2022 and the second, one, Ax-2, might also. Ax-1 will see former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria take three space tourists on an eight-day mission to the ISS while Ax-2 will have another ex-NASA astronaut, Peggy Whitson, do the same in fall 2022 or spring 2023.
‘Dream Chaser’ finally goes into orbit
When: March, June, August and November 2022
It looks like a mini-Space Shuttle and it lands on a runway like one, too, but Sierra Space’s nine-meter “Dream Chaser” has bigger ambitions. In 2022 it will make a number of scheduled test flights to the ISS to provide cargo delivery and the return of science experiments under a Commercial Resupply Service 2 (CRS2) contract with NASA. Sadly none of them will be piloted—Dream Chaser can take seven astronauts, but it can also fly autonomously.
NASA’s Juno captures a close-up of Europa
When: February and September 2022
NASA’s Juno spacecraft—in orbit of Jupiter since 2016—made a distant encounter with Jupiter’s moon Europa in October 2021. However, there’s more where that came from in 2022. The $1.1 billion spacecraft will next get a view of Europa in February 2022, from a distance of about 29,000 miles/47,000 km), followed in late September 2022 by a close-up from just 221 miles/355 kilometers) above Europa's surface.
Starliner reaches for the stars
When: May and September 2022
NASA has successfully hived-off its Earth-to-orbit duties to SpaceX and its Crew Dragon capsule, but that’s only half the story. Boeing and its Starliner spacecraft has the same deal with NASA, but it can only go live once a test flight has been successful. After a few technical issues during its last few attempts Boeing will go again in 2022 with a test flight in May and a planned crewed mission to the International Space Station in September.
JUICE heads for Jupiter
When: May 2022
The European Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive in the Jovian System in 2029. It will then take three and a half years to examine Jupiter’s moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
NASA explores a ‘quadrillion-dollar’ asteroid
When: August 2022
NASA wants a close-up of one of the most intriguing and possibly one of the most valuable asteroids we know of, 16 Psyche. In August 2022 NASA will send a spacecraft skywards on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on a low-cost Discovery-class robotic space mission to find out if it really made of iron and nickel. The orbiter is due to arrive at Psyche in January 2026 to begin at least 21 months in orbit mapping and studying the asteroid’s properties.
Europe and Russia send a rover to Mars
When: September 20, 2022
After COVID-19 related delays prior to its scheduled launch in 202o the European Space Agency and Roscosmos intend to send their joint ExoMars mission skywards in 2022. A 12-day launch window opens on September 20, 2022 with the Rosalind Franklin rover scheduled to land on Mars on June 10, 2023.
Blue Origin tests its ‘New Glenn’ rocket
When: September 2022
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is carving-out a niche as the space tourism choice for the super-rich and has several such flights planned for 2022, but its current rocket, New Shepard, is sub-orbital only. Cue New Glenn, an orbital-class reusable rocket that looks set to be tested in LATE 2022. That will give Blue Origin the same reach as SpaceX—and green-light the core of Amazon’s Project Kuiper plan to launch 3,000+ satellites.
Long before that, in early 29022, Blue Origin will deliver the first of its BE-4 flight engines for the inaugural launch of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket.
NASA smashes into an asteroid
When: October 2, 2022
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a mission from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to smash a 500kg spacecraft into binary asteroid 65803 Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos (also called “Didymoon.”) The idea is that by creating a “kinetic deflection” on Dimorphos it will ever so slightly change the trajectory of both objects. It’s important because the asteroids are heading towards Earth. Not catastrophically so, but NASA wants to see what is possible if such a scenario materializes.
A Peregrine lands on the Moon
When: 2022
Frequently delayed and still without a confirmed launch date is Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander. NASA’s first commercial space mission to the Moon, Peregrine Mission 1 will carry scientific and other payloads to the Moon including the Iris rover, the first American and student-developed rover to land on the Moon.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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