Hi fellow enthusiasts!
The year 2020 is near the end, so I'd like to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2021. The year 2020 was certainly not the best for many of us, but at least with regards to rocketry and space exploration it was not so bad! Here's short recap from last 2 months:
🚀 Nov 16th - Falcon 9 / Space X Crew 1 mission: first commercial crewed operational flight performed by private company! Four astronauts were brought to ISS by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in Crew Dragon capsule, starting the new era of crewed spaceflight.
🚀 Nov 23rd - Long March 5 / Chang'e 5 mission: Chinese mission to the Moon and back with return of lunar soil! The last time when lunar soil was returned back to Earth was in 1976! The launch was performed by Long March 5 rocket, the heaviest one in Chinese arsenal.
🚀 Dec 9th - Starship SN8 test flight: spectacular 12.5 km hop of VTVL (vertical take-off, vertical landing) Starship prototype of SpaceX. It ended up in explosion, but Starship proven itself to be viable concept. Its landing flip is stunt of 2020 for me! SpaceX doesn't stop and that's goooood!
🚀 Dec 13th - Angara A5 2nd test launch: Angara A5 is the new Russian heavy launch vehicle which aims to replace Proton and will be adapted also for crewed launches! This test launch was complete success and more are yet to come!
So not bad really, eh?
With Winter Holidays here and Steam Winter Sale running Universe Quiz is also participating, so if you are motivated to check your skills in astronomy and space exploration or learn something new a bit, Universe Quiz is in discount.
And for the most hard-core enthusiast of you, I'm brewing something new related to space exploration and rockets. If you would like to, check the web of new project: Universe Quest.
That's all folks, one more time Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2021 to all of you!
🚀🚀🚀