Orbital launches | |
---|---|
First | 1 January |
Last | 16 August |
Total | 153 |
Successes | 146 |
Failures | 4 |
Partial failures | 3 |
Catalogued | 122 |
National firsts | |
Space traveller | |
Rockets | |
Maiden flights |
|
Retirements | |
Crewed flights | |
Orbital | 5 |
Orbital travellers | 16 |
Suborbital | 3 |
Suborbital travellers | 18 |
Total travellers | 34 |
The year 2024 is expected to exceed 2023's 223 orbital launches. So far, the year saw the successful first launch of Vulcan Centaur, Gravity-1, Ariane 6 (partially successful), and notably more developmental launches of SpaceX's Starship – with IFT-3, IFT-4, IFT-5, and IFT-6 planned for this year. Additionally, the final launch of a Delta family rocket occurred in April with a Delta IV Heavy. In May, China launched the Chang'e 6, the first sample return from the far side of the Moon.
In terms of other national-level scientific space missions, NASA's Europa Clipper probe, NASA's EscaPADE probe, and ESA's Hera probe are scheduled to launch in 2024. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter ended operation in January due to damages to rotor blades after its 72nd flight. This year is also expected to see many lunar landing attempts. JAXA's SLIM and Intuitive Machines' IM-1 have successfully survived soft-landings on the Moon but were tipped over during final moments of descent.
Two crewed space stations, the International Space Station (ISS) and Tiangong, are in operation in 2024. In terms of crewed missions, the ISS will be visited by Expedition 70, 71, and 72, while Shenzhou 18 and 19 will visit Tiangong. The ISS also hosted the private crew of Axiom Mission 3.
This year saw Alper Gezeravcı become the first Turkish astronaut, as a crew member on Axiom Mission 3. Belarus also had its first citizen reach space, when cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya launched on Soyuz MS-25 (not counting Pyotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalyonok, and Oleg Novitsky who were Soviet or Russian citizens of Belarusian origin when they traveled to space).
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