Let’s take a look back at the last month of 2023 and what happened beyond low Earth orbit. In December 2023, we had spacecrafts celebrating more than 20 years in space. And a successful lunar orbit insertion.
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Chang’e-5 enters 4th year on lunar surface
On December 1, the lander of China’s Chang’E-5 mission entered its fourth year on the lunar surface.
Its original mission was to land on the lunar surface, collect samples from the surface and send them back to Earth. Therefore, the mission included a total of four spacecrafts.
Everything worked, and the main mission was completed in December 2020.
Since no new information about the status of the lander has been published, I don’t known if it is still active.
Read more about the Chang’e-5 mission.
SOHO enters 29th year of operations in space
One day later, on December 2, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) began its 29th year of operations in space.
SOHO is a spacecraft dedicated to studying the Sun. With its unique combination of instruments, it helps us how the Sun changes and how this affects us on Earth.
Have you watched the latest space weather forecast already? If not, find out by, for example, visiting the space weather woman. It’s impacting us a lot more than you might think.
Aside from studying the Sun, the spacecraft also helped to discover many comets. Until today, nearly 5,000 comets have been discovered by the Sungrazer Project using images from SOHO and the STEREO spacecrafts.
Read more about the SOHO mission and other missions at the Sun-Earth L1.
Akatsuki enters 9th year at Venus
On December 7, JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft entered its 9th year in orbit at Venus.
Akatsuki or the Venus Climate Orbiter mission is studying the atmosphere of Venus.
Images and data about the circulations in Venus’ atmosphere help us better understand the atmospheres of planets. Which might be useful with understanding our atmosphere and how it might change in the future.
Read more about Akatsuki and other spacecrafts in a previous post or visit the official website.
Danuri enters 2nd year in lunar orbit
After entering its second year in space in August, the Korean spacecraft on December 16 entered its second year in lunar orbit.
Danuri is a technology demonstrator and the first lunar orbiter of KARI the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
Read more about the Danuri on this blog or on the official website.
Gaia enters 11th year in space
On December 19, Gaia, an ESA spacecraft, reaches 10 full years in space.
Gaia is positioned in an orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point. From there it is creating the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
Read more about Gaia, SOHO and other spacecrafts.
SLIM successfully enters into lunar orbit
On December 25, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) entered into lunar orbit.
From there, it will append a soft landing on the near side of the Moon on January 19, 2024.
Follow the updates on the mission website or read my post about it to learn more.
Mars Express enters 21st year in Mars orbit
Do you remember, what you did 20 years ago? Well, on December 25, 2003, ESA’s Mars Express entered into Mars orbit.
Twenty years later, it’s still in orbit of Mars and still in operation. So congratulations to ESA and all people involved in this mission!
Read more about the mission in my previous post.
James Webb Space Telescope enters 3rd year in space
Also on December 25, but in 2021, one of the last Ariane 5 launched the James Webb Space Telescope.
You have probably heard about it or seen, for example, the first images it took.
It entered its 3rd year in space and is capturing astonishing images from its orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 point. Like the one below, which shows Uranus and many of its moons.
And with this, we close of the year 2023.