Like every year sees some great successes and great failures, 2019 had them as well. There had been some really great achievements and breakthroughs in 2019. The biggest Space Failures of 2019 are surprising and heartbreaking as well.
While we can’t discuss every success and every failure in every single department, we can definitely talk about the biggest successes and failures.
Some of the greatest achievements and attempts made news and awed enthusiasts and nations.
From China landing a spacecraft on the moon to NASA’s New Horizons flying by the most distant object human-made spacecraft have ever visited.
A Japanese spacecraft twice retrieved samples from the surface of an asteroid and shot a bullet through it, making an artificial crate.
But since everyone talks about success, we bring you the biggest space failures of 2019.
Failure of Mars One Ventures
The failure of Mars One Ventures, the company that planned to send humans on Mars was not a surprise. It was a doomed mission even before it started.
Many experts had suspected it to be a scam intended to extract money from investors.
The naive plan was to send a group of real humans on Mars for establishing a colony there. It was going to be a one-way journey. The plan to send people to live and eventually die on the red planet was a futile attempt if not a fake one.
Eventually, Bas Lansdorp, founder of Mars One declared the company’s bankruptcy on January 15, to no one’s surprise.
Israeli Beresheet lander crash-lands on the moon
Israel’s first moon lander crashed while landing on the moon’s surface on April 11. It was the first privately funded spacecraft built and successfully launched by Israel’s SpaceIL.
The spacecraft’s main engine failed when it was about to land. Engineers lost the communication and the lander crashed on the surface of the moon.
If the landing had been successful, Israel would have become the fourth country to have made a successful landing on the moon.
The mission has been considered significant despite its failure and was lauded for the efforts. SpaceIL said it will attempt another lunar landing soon.
Crew Dragon vehicle of SpaceX exploded on its launchpad
SpaceX successfully launched its Crew Dragon Vehicle in March to the International Space Station. It then started preparing for a standard static test of the vehicle’s Super Draco Engines in April.
Despite all preparations, a leaky propellant valve led to the explosion of the capsule on the launchpad. The explosion resulted in 2019 passing without any astronaut from the U.S. soil going into space.
Failure of Iran’s third launch
Iran witnessed three consecutive space launch failures this year. The most devastating failure has been the latest one on August 29.
An accident during the launch preparation caused an explosion on the launchpad. The explosion destroyed the Safir rocket and its payload.
The two previous missions were conducted in January and February when rockets failed to reach the orbit.
India’s Vikram Lander crashes on the moon surface
India’s ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission was aimed at sending spacecraft on moons surface to conduct research on its ice water reserves.
Having made it to the orbit about a month ago, the ISRO was set to send its Vikram lander on the surface of the moon. But the scientists soon lost communication with the lander.
On September 6, Vikram lander crashed on the moon’s surface much to the dismay of India.
ISRO is now already preparing for Chandrayaan-3 which would attempt another landing by 2021.
So that was all about the space failures of 2019. And we hope that all these failures will see success in future attempts.
