Foreign media: 2021, a major year for human space industry Foreign media: 2021, a major year for human space industry

According to Agence France-Presse Washington reported on December 30, from the "Witty" Mars helicopter for the first time on another planet to explore the early history of the universe James Webb space telescope launch, 2021 is a major year for the human space cause.

In February, nasa's Perseverance Mars rover landed flawlessly at Jezero Crater on Mars. Since then, the car-sized robot has been taking pictures and drilling samples to see if the Red Planet has ever had ancient microbial life forms.

It had a companion, the "Witty," a 2-kilogram rotorcraft. More than a century after the Wright brothers achieved their first powered flight on Earth, in April this year, Witty successfully completed its first power flight on another celestial body, and has since made several more flights.

In 2001, an American millionaire became the world's first space tourist, but it took another 20 years for private spaceflight to finally materialize.

In July, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson competed with Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin, becoming the first non-specialist astronaut to complete a suborbital space flight. But Blue Origin is a leader in the field, having since carried out three more manned space launches, sending multiple paying customers and celebrities into space.

Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technology Company joined the showdown in September, with Inspiration IV carrying an all-civilian crew and orbiting the Earth for three days.

In 2021, Russian astronauts filmed the first space feature film on the International Space Station, while Japanese tourists visited the International Space Station on Russian rockets.

On December 11, within minutes of Blue Origin's third manned space mission, humans set a record for the highest number of people in space at the same time — 19 people. At that time, the International Space Station welcomed Japanese tourists, and several Chinese astronauts were on missions on their own space stations.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated space. Today, commercial spaceflight is exploding, and countries like China and India are demonstrating their space capabilities.

China's first long-term space station launched its first module in April, and China's first Mars rover, Zhu Rong, also successfully landed on Mars in May, making China the world's second country to land on Mars.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said: "In the past 20 years, China has finally decided to make a big show in space, and they have been in catch-up mode. Now, they've pretty much caught up and started doing things that the United States hasn't done. ”

In February, the UAE's probe into mars orbit arrived on Mars, becoming the fifth country in the world to explore Mars and the only Arab country.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope has brought 2021 to an end. It's a $10 billion miracle that will use infrared technology to go back 13 billion years. Kathy Drier, chief promotion officer of the American Planetary Society, said: "This is arguably the most expensive single scientific platform ever invented by mankind. ”

According to the US "Capitol Hill" daily website reported on December 29, with the major development of space policy, the pace of space exploration in 2021 is extremely rapid, and 2022 is bound to be equally exciting. Let's pause and review this year's space milestones:

This year, three billionaires have emerged in a new commercial space race. The first to go to heaven was Sir Branson, who was just nine days ahead of Amazon and Blue Origin founder Bezos, but Bezos also had something to brag about himself, with his "New Shepard" spacecraft flying over the Carmen Line, the official dividing line of outer space.

The report also said that the third billionaire of this elite club is Elon Musk. The CEO of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies also had a brilliant year, delivering 8 astronauts and 1 ton of supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

In a brief moment in December, a record 19 people were weightless in space, eight of them ordinary people. The 6 space tourism flights in 2021 also set a record as part of a resurgence in space activity. With a total of 135 successful orbital missions throughout the year, China surpassed the United States to become the country with the most launches.

The report also pointed out that the number of launches in 2021 is more than in any other year in the history of the space program since the launch of the Soviet Union's "Satellite One"!

Source: Reference News Network