: NASAs journey from Mars landing to launch of the next-gen space telescope #IndiaNEWS #Space Despite facing several delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the last year, NASA had its busiest year of

NASAs journey from Mars landing to launch of the next-gen space telescope #IndiaNEWS #Space
Despite facing several delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the last year, NASA had its busiest year of development yet in 2021.

The US space agency in 2021 made history on Mars, continued to make progress on its Artemis plans for the Moon, tested new technologies for a supersonic aircraft, finalized launch preparations for the next-generation space telescope, and much more all while safely operating under the shadow of the pandemic. At NASA, we turn science fiction into science fact, and we do it daily. From continuing to launch astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil to landing the Perseverance rover on Mars and logging the first flight on another planet, 2021 was a banner year for the worlds premier space agency and all of humanity, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

Next year, NASA will accomplish more daring feats with new discoveries and technological advancements, especially as our Artemis I mission paves the way for future crewed missions to the Moon and beyond, Nelson added.

Among the many scientific accomplishments for the year, NASA continued preparations to launch the James Webb Space Telescope on December 25 from French Guiana, successfully landed the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars, and piloted the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.

Webb is the agencys final launch this year and was preceded by several other scientific missions launches, including the cosmic X-ray studying Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), the asteroid-studying Lucy spacecraft, the worlds first planetary defense test mission the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and two CubeSat missions.

NASA welcomed back to Earth the first two sets of commercial crew astronauts to complete expedition missions aboard the ISS and launched Crew-3 to the orbiting laboratory. During the Crew-2 mission, astronauts spent a US record-setting 199 days in orbit, surpassing the 168 days set by the Crew-1 mission earlier this year.

This was the 21st continuous year of human presence aboard the ISS, and the busiest yet, the space agency said.

The agency also advanced plans to explore more of the Moon through Artemis, pledging to send the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface. To pave the way for future lunar missions with crew, NASA completed stacking of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with its Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission.

Artemis I an uncrewed flight test of NASAs powerful SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will travel around the Moon in March or April 2022.

In addition, NASA also picked SpaceX to continue the development and demonstration of the first commercial human lunar lander.