Here is a look back at NASA's planetary milestones achieved in 2021; their major missions

The era of space exploration experienced new dawn in 2021 as the year allowed us humans to leave our mark on the farthest of planets and even asteroids. The passing year is the one when humans flew the first spacecraft on Mars, launched the Hubble Space Telescope, and ‘touched the sun’ for the first time ever. So, as we head towards 2022, here’s a look at major missions conducted by NASA that made this year memorable.

Perseverance rover lands on Mars

In NASA’s own words, “the early part of the year was all about the Red Planet”, as the Perseverance rover made its landing on Mars and engineers conducted the first-ever helicopter flight on another world. Perseverance touched down on the red planet on February 18 while the people of Earth held their breath as the rover descended through a parachute to begin its exploration of Mars. 

Ingenuity’s first flight on Mars

As mentioned above, Ingenuity’s flight on Mars was a big deal as it was the first object made on Earth that flew in an alien world on April 19. Originally designed to test the feasibility of flying in Mars’ thin atmosphere, it has now transformed into a project to test the collaborative working of rovers and aerial vehicles to explore the Martian terrain. The video shared below shows Ingenuity’s first flight that NASA scientists received on April 25. The helicopter flew a total of 50 meters from its original spot and fast forward eight months; it so far has had 18 successful flights.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Departs Bennu asteroid with samples

It was in 2021 when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft departed the Bennu asteroid which it was orbiting for two years. According to NASA, the spacecraft had descended onto the asteroid surface in October 2020 to collect asteroid samples, which are expected to reach Earth by 2023. 

NASA’s Juno spacecraft makes the closest approach to Ganymede

The Juno spacecraft, which was launched to explore Jupiter, its features and its surroundings came closest to Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest Moon, on July 7. NASA revealed that the spacecraft was just 1,038 kilometers from Ganymede’s surface, making it the closest approach of any natural satellite by a spacecraft since the Galileo mission in 2000. Needless to say, the pictures sent by the spacecraft during its flyby are something to behold. 

NASA launches mission Lucy

NASA launched its mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids to extract important information about the beginnings of our solar system. Named Lucy, the mission spacecraft will travel for six years before it reaches its destination. According to NASA, these asteroids are planetary building blocks that have been trapped within Jupiter’s orbit for 4.5 billion years.

NASA’s mission to save Earth from killer asteroids

Definitely among NASA’s most exciting missions this year was the  Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) which aims to test technologies to protect our planet in case an asteroid is on a collision course. Launched on November 24, DART will travel to a distant asteroid named Didymos, and intentionally collide with its moonlet Dimorphos, which is about 530 feet (160 meters) wide.

Launch of the most powerful telescope 

Jointly built by NASA, ESA and the CSA, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25 from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Launched aboard the Ariane 5 rocket, Webb has now crossed the Moon and is heading towards its destination, the second Lagrange point (L2) which is 1.5 kilometres from Earth.

Image: Twitter/@NASA