Overview
Exploration of the Solar System
On April 14, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft to explore Jupiter and its large ice-covered moons following an eight-year transit.[1]
ISRO launched its third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 on 14 July 2023 at 9:05 UTC;[2] it consists of lander, rover and a propulsion module,[3] and is supposed to land on the south pole of the Moon on 23 August 2023.
The OSIRIS-REx mission will return to Earth on 24 September with samples collected from asteroid Bennu.[4]
NASA plans to launch the Psyche spacecraft, an orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, in October 2023 on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.
Human spaceflight
A new record for the number of people in space at once was reached on 25 May 2023. 20 people were in space simultaneously, with eleven people aboard the ISS, three on Tiangong, and six on SpaceShipTwo.[5] 5 days later on 30 May, the record for the number of people in orbit simultaneously was broken as well, with 17 people in orbit at once; 6 people on Tiangong from Shenzhou 15 and 16, 7 people from Expedition 69 on the ISS as well 4 crew members from Axiom-2 also on the ISS.[6][5]
Space tourism
Axiom Mission 2 private crew mission to the International Space Station was launched on 21 May 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. The mission ended with successful return of the crew to Earth on 31 May 2023.
Virgin Galactic Unity 25 mission took place 25 May 2023. This was the first mission for Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceplane VSS Unity since 2021. On 29 June 2023, Virgin Galactic flew their first commercial suborbital spaceflight mission, Galactic 01, with their suborbital spaceplane VSS Unity. Onboard Unity were three employees of the company and three passengers (whose flight had been paid from outside the company) from the Italian Air Force and Italy’s National Research Council.[7]
SpaceX plans to fly Polaris Dawn in September, a Crew Dragon mission including the first commercial spacewalk.
Rocket innovation
The maiden flights of Arianespace's Ariane 6[8] and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur[9] are planned for 2023, along with other smaller rockets.
On January 10, ABL Space Systems' RS1 had its debut flight, but failed to reach orbit.[10]
On March 7, JAXA/MHI H3's maiden flight was terminated in-flight due to failure to ignite the second stage, resulting in the loss of the ALOS-3 land observation satellite.[11]
On March 23, Relativity Space's Terran 1 had its debut flight. The flight goal, which was to demonstrate the viability of 3D printing for major structural components of a rocket, was achieved when Terran 1 passed max q and continued to perform nominally. However, after stage separation, the second stage failed to ignite, ending the mission.[12] Following the failed launch, Relativity retired the rocket in favor of developing the much larger, reusable Terran R vehicle.[13]
On April 2, Space Pioneer's Tianlong-2 had its debut flight, and successfully reached orbit. It was the first successful launch of a Chinese privately-funded liquid-fueled rocket. Space Pioneer is the first private company to reach orbit on its first attempt using a fully liquid fueled rocket.[14]
On April 20, SpaceX's Starship had its first test flight,[15] aiming to complete about three-quarters of an orbit and landing in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Kauai.[16] Some engines on the booster failed during the flight and the flight termination system was triggered, ending the flight before stage separation.
Virgin Orbit declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 4, 2023.[17] The following dissolution of the company led to the retirement of LauncherOne rocket, with the unsuccessful launch of 9 January 2023 remaining the last flight of LauncherOne.
On 30 May, the North Korean Chollima-1 made its first orbital launch attempt, carrying the military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1.[18] However, the launch failed to achieve orbit when the second stage ignited too early in the mission.[19] The launch vehicle crashed into the Yellow Sea.[20]
On 5 July, Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket flew its final mission.
On 12 July, LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket, in its second flight, became the world's first methane-fuelled rocket to successfully reach orbit.[21]
Space debris and satellites management
On 27 January, ESA reported the successful demonstration of a braking sail-based satellite deorbiter, , which could be used by space debris mitigation measures.[22][23]
Suborbital launch statistics
By country
For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of suborbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. Flights intended to fly below 80 km (50 mi) are omitted.
Oman (suborbital spaceflight due to failed orbital launch)
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