1. The US’s return to the ISS
SpaceX is set to make the first test-launch of its human-rated capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) in January. Called the Crew Dragon Demo-1, the it will be uncrewed. If successful, it will be followed by a crewed test flight in June, carrying two astronauts to the ISS.
Boeing, the other company with a NASA Commercial Crew Program contract, has a similar schedule. The first uncrewed flight of its human-rated capsule – the CST-100 Starliner – will be in March, followed by a crewed test flight in August if all goes well.
Assuming both the SpaceX and Boeing missions will be successful, they will mark the return of American astronauts to the ISS onboard made-in-American spacecraft. The ultimate goal is to replace the (retired) Space Shuttle programme and also forgo the increasingly expensive use of Russian rockets.
2. Three Moon missions, all to land
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is targeting an early-2019 launch of Chandrayaan 2, its second Moon mission and the first that will attempt to land. Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The lander will carry instruments like a seismometer and a thermal probe, while the rover will carry spectrometers to analyse the lunar soil (regolith).
(Note: the launch date was updated on January 1, 2019, to reflect an uncertainty on ISRO’s part.)
SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit, will be launching their lunar lander in the first quarter of 2019 onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If successful, SpaceIL will become the first privately funded entity to achieve a lunar landing. The lander will try to land in an interesting lunar feature called a swirl, which are known to have local magnetic fields.
China is gearing up to launch its Chang’e 5 mission sometime in 2019 – its first lunar sample return mission. Once it lands successfully in a geologically new region on the Moon, the lander will dig 2m below the surface and scoop out two kilogram’s worth of lunar regolith. A capsule carrying the sample will perform an autonomous rendezvous and dock with a return module, which will then bring the sample to Earth.
It is notable that the rendezvous and docking will be practice for a future Chinese crewed mission to the Moon.
3. New rockets in the fray
After a spectacular debut in 2018, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket is set to operate as the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world. In March 2019, it will attempt to launch the Arabsat 6A satellite to a geostationary orbit. This is a communications satellite intended to provide TV, internet, telephone and secure communication services to customers in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.