This article documents notable spaceflight events during the year 2018. For the first time since 1990, more than 100 orbital launches were performed globally.
Overview Planetary exploration The NASA InSight seismology probe was launched in May 2018 and landed on Mars in November. The Parker Solar Probe was launched to explore the Sun in August 2018, and reached its first perihelion in November, traveling faster than any prior spacecraft. On 20 October the ESA and JAXA launched BepiColombo to Mercury, on a 10-year mission featuring several flybys and eventually deploying two orbiters in 2025 for local study. The asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 reached its target Ryugu in June, and the similar OSIRIS-REx probe reached Bennu in December. China launched its Chang'e 4 lander/rover in December which performed the first ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon in January 2019; a communications relay was sent to the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point in May. The Google Lunar X Prize expired on 31 March without a winner for its $20 million grand prize, because none of its five finalist teams were able to launch a commercial lunar lander mission before the deadline.
Human spaceflight The Soyuz MS-10 October mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was aborted shortly after launch, due to a separation failure of one of the rocket's side boosters. The crew landed safely, and was rescheduled for March 2019 on Soyuz MS-12. The United States returned to spaceflight on 13 December with the successful suborbital spaceflight of VSS Unity Flight VP-03. The flight did not reach the Kármán line (100 km) but it did cross the US definition of space (50 mi). As per United States convention, it was the first human spaceflight launched from the U.S. since the last Space shuttle flight STS-135 in 2011. Astronauts Mark P. Stucky and Frederick W. Sturckow both received their FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings on 7 February 2019. The return of the United States to human orbital spaceflight was further delayed to 2019, as Boeing and SpaceX, under NASA supervision, performed further tests on their commercial crew spacecraft under development: Starliner on Atlas V and SpaceX Dragon 2 on Falcon 9.
Rocket innovation After a failed launch in 2017, the Electron rocket reached orbit with its second flight in January; manufactured by Rocket Lab, it is the first orbital rocket equipped with electric pump-fed engines. On 3 February, the Japanese SS-520-5 rocket (a modified sounding rocket) successfully delivered a 3U CubeSat to orbit, thus becoming the lightest and smallest orbital launch vehicle ever. On 6 February, SpaceX performed the much-delayed test flight of Falcon Heavy, carrying a car and a mannequin to a heliocentric orbit beyond Mars. Falcon Heavy became the most powerful active rocket until the maiden launch of the Space Launch System in 2022. On 27 October, LandSpace launched Zhuque-1, the first privately developed rocket in China; it failed to reach orbit. The company later announced that it would not repeat the launch attempt and shift its focus to the Zhuque-2 launch vehicle, making this the only launch attempt of Zhuque-1. On 13 December Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reached 82.7 km, below the internationally recognized Kármán line but above the 50-mile definition of space used by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Accelerating activity The global activity of the launch industry grew significantly in 2018. 114 launches were conducted over the full year, compared with 91 in 2017, a 25% increase. Only three missions failed fully or partially in 2018, compared with eight failures in 2017. In August, China surpassed its previous record of 22 launches in 2016, and ended the year with a total 39 launches, also more launches than any other country in 2018. The 100th orbital launch of the year occurred on 3 December, exceeding all yearly tallies since the end of the Cold War space race in 1991.
Orbital and suborbital launches
+ List of orbital launchesMonthNum. of successesNum. of failuresJanuary130February80March100April90May70June80July80August40September80October112November130December150 Total 2
Deep-space rendezvous Date (GMT)SpacecraftEventRemarks 7 February Juno 11th perijove of Jupiter 1 April Juno 12th perijove 17 May TESS Gravity assist by the Moon Closest approach: 24 May Juno 13th perijove 25 May Queqiao Moon flyby In Earth–Moon L2 halo orbit 25 May Longjiang-1 Moon flyby Failed lunar orbital injection 25 May Longjiang-2 Injection into Selenocentric orbit Preliminary orbit was 350 × 13800 km, inclined 21° to the equator 27 June Hayabusa2 Arrival at asteroid Ryugu 16 July Juno 14th perijove 7 September Juno 15th perijove 21 September HIBOU (ROVER-1A) Landing on Ryugu 21 September OWL (ROVER-1B) Landing on Ryugu 3 October MASCOT Landing on Ryugu 3 October Parker Solar Probe First gravity assist at Venus 29 October Juno 16th perijove 6 November Parker Solar Probe First perihelion Occurred at 03:28 UTC, a distance of 25 million km from the Sun. New record for the fastest spacecraft (95 km/s). 26 November InSight Arrival at Mars Successful landing at Elysium Planitia, coordinates . 26 November MarCO A, B Mars flyby Data relays for InSight lander 3 December OSIRIS-REx Arrival at asteroid Bennu Approach phase operations began on 17 August 12 December Chang'e 4 Injection into Selenocentric orbit Preliminary orbit 100 × 400 km, en route to a landing attempt on the Lunar farside 21 December Juno 17th perijove
Extravehicular activities (EVAs)
Start date/timeDurationEnd timeSpacecraftCrewRemarks 23 January 11:49 7 hours 24 minutes 19:13 ISS Quest Replacement of latching end effector-B (LEE-B) for the space station remote manipulator system (SSRMS) 2 February 15:34 8 hours 13 minutes 23:47 ISS Pirs Dismantling Lira electronics assembly Installation of upgraded electronics unit Jettisoning of removed unit Test exposure unit retrieval Biorisk retrieval Foot restraint relocation 16 February 12:00 5 hours 57 minutes 17:57 ISS Quest Finished removal and replacement of latching end effector on POA Replaced LEE camera, installed ground strap on Canadarm2 Brought failed LEE inside Lubricated Canadarm2 Moved tool platform on Dextre Adjusted struts on flex hose rotary coupler 29 March 13:33 6 hours 10 minutes 19:43 ISS Quest Node 3 external wireless antenna install P1 truss ammonia jumper remove (P1-3-2 RBVM) CP8 camera group replacement S0 ammonia jumper relocate to ESP-1 APFR relocate to ESP-1 Bolt preps on ESP-2 16 May 11:39 6 hours 31 minutes 18:10 ISS Quest Relocation of two pump flow control subassembly (PFCS) units Replace the camera port-13 (CP-13) external television camera group (ETVCG) Replacement of the space to ground transmit/receive controller (SGTRC) 14 June 08:06 6 hours 14:55 ISS Quest Installed new cameras to monitor the approach and docking maneuvers of commercial crew spacecraft Replaced a defective camera and lighting on the right side of the station Closed the cover of the Cloud Aerosol Transport System instrument 15 August 16:17 7 hours 46 minutes 00:03 on 16 August Expedition 56 ISS Pirs Deployed four cubesats built by Russian students Installed antennas and cables for the Icarus animal-tracking device Retrieved two materials exposure packages from the Zvezda hull 11 December 15:59 7 hours 45 minutes 21:44 Expedition 57 ISS Pirs Inspected damage to the hull of Soyuz MS-09
Space debris events Date/Time (UTC) Pieces tracked Remarks 31 August Centaur upper stage Unknown 80 22 December 07:12 Orbcomm OG1 FM 16 Satellite breakup 34+ Orbcomm OG1 sat FM 16 disintegrated for unknown reasons.
Orbital launch statistics
By country For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. As examples, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian rocket.
Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures 39 38 1 0 6 5 0 1 7 7 0 0 2 2 0 0 6 6 0 0 20 19 1 0 34 34 0 0 World
By rocket
By family Family Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Antares 2 2 0 0 Ariane 6 5 0 1 Atlas 5 5 0 0 Delta 3 3 0 0 Electron 3 3 0 0 Epsilon 1 1 0 0 Falcon 21 21 0 0 GSLV 2 2 0 0 GSLV Mk III 1 1 0 0 H-II 4 4 0 0 Kuaizhou 1 1 0 0 Long March 37 37 0 0 PSLV 4 4 0 0 R-7 16 15 1 0 S-Series 1 1 0 0 Final orbital flight Universal Rocket 4 4 0 0 Vega 2 2 0 0 Zhuque 1 0 1 0 Maiden flight
By type Rocket Country Family Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Antares 200 Antares 2 2 0 0 Ariane 5 Ariane 6 5 0 1 Atlas V Atlas 5 5 0 0 Delta II Delta 1 1 0 0 Final flight Delta IV Delta 2 2 0 0 Electron Electron 3 3 0 0 Epsilon Epsilon 1 1 0 0 Falcon 9 Falcon 21 21 0 0 GSLV GSLV 2 2 0 0 GSLV Mk III GSLV Mk III 1 1 0 0 H-IIA H-II 3 3 0 0 H-IIB H-II 1 1 0 0 Kuaizhou 1 Kuaizhou 1 1 0 0 Long March 2 Long March 14 14 0 0 Long March 3 Long March 14 14 0 0 Long March 4 Long March 6 6 0 0 Long March 11 Long March 3 3 0 0 Proton Universal Rocket 2 2 0 0 PSLV PSLV 4 4 0 0 Soyuz R-7 5 4 1 0 Soyuz-2 or ST R-7 11 11 0 0 SS-520 S-Series 1 1 0 0 Final orbital flight UR-100 Universal Rocket 2 2 0 0 Vega Vega 2 2 0 0 Zhuque-1 Zhuque 1 0 1 0 Only flight
By configuration Rocket Country Type Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Antares 230 Antares 200 2 2 0 0 Ariane 5 ECA Ariane 5 5 4 0 1 Ariane 5 ES Ariane 5 1 1 0 0 Final flight Atlas V 401 Atlas V 1 1 0 0 Atlas V 411 Atlas V 1 1 0 0 Atlas V 541 Atlas V 1 1 0 0 Atlas V 551 Atlas V 2 2 0 0 Delta II 7420 Delta II 1 1 0 0 Final flight Delta IV Medium+ (5,2) Delta IV 1 1 0 0 Final flight Delta IV Heavy Delta IV 1 1 0 0 Epsilon Epsilon 1 1 0 0 Electron Electron 3 3 0 0 Falcon 9 Full Thrust Falcon 9 10 10 0 0 Final flight Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 10 10 0 0 Maiden flight Falcon Heavy Falcon 9 1 1 0 0 Maiden flight GSLV Mk II GSLV 2 2 0 0 GSLV Mk III GSLV Mk III 1 1 0 0 H-IIA 202 H-IIA 3 3 0 0 H-IIA 204 H-IIA 0 0 0 0 H-IIB H-IIB 1 1 0 0 Kuaizhou 1A Kuaizhou 1 1 0 0 Long March 2C Long March 2 6 6 0 0 Long March 2D Long March 2 8 8 0 0 Long March 3A Long March 3 2 2 0 0 Long March 3B/E Long March 3 3 3 0 0 Long March 3B/E / YZ-1 Long March 3 8 8 0 0 Long March 3C/E Long March 3 1 1 0 0 Long March 4B Long March 4 2 2 0 0 Long March 4C Long March 4 4 4 0 0 Long March 11 Long March 11 3 3 0 0 Proton-M / Briz-M Proton 2 2 0 0 PSLV-CA PSLV 2 2 0 0 PLSV-XL PSLV 2 2 0 0 Rokot / Briz-KM UR-100 2 2 0 0 Soyuz-FG Soyuz 5 4 1 0 Soyuz-2.1a or ST-A Soyuz-2 2 2 0 0 Soyuz-2.1a or ST-A / Fregat-M Soyuz-2 2 2 0 0 Soyuz-2.1b or ST-B Soyuz-2 1 1 0 0 Soyuz-2.1b or ST-B / Fregat-M Soyuz-2 4 4 0 0 Soyuz-2.1b or ST-B / Fregat-MT Soyuz-2 1 1 0 0 Soyuz-2-1v / Volga Soyuz-2 1 1 0 0 SS-520-5 SS-520 1 1 0 0 Final orbital flight Vega Vega 2 2 0 0 Zhuque-1 Zhuque-1 1 0 1 0 Only flight
By spaceport
Site Country Launches Successes Failures Partial failures Remarks Baikonur 9 8 1 0 Cape Canaveral 17 16 1 0 Jiuquan 16 15 1 0 Kennedy 3 3 0 0 Kourou 11 10 0 1 Mahia 3 3 0 0 MARS 2 2 0 0 Plesetsk 6 6 0 0 Satish Dhawan 7 7 0 0 Taiyuan 6 6 0 0 Tanegashima 4 4 0 0 Uchinoura 2 2 0 0 Vandenberg 9 9 0 0 Vostochny 2 2 0 0 Xichang 17 17 0 0 Total 114 110 3 1
By orbit
Orbital regime Launches Achieved Not achieved Accidentally achieved Remarks Transatmospheric 0 0 0 0 Low Earth / Sun-synchronous 67 64 3 0 Zuma, Soyuz MS-10 and Zhuque-1 lost Geosynchronous / GTO 27 26 0 1 Ariane VA241 underperformed Medium Earth 13 13 0 0 High Earth / Lunar transfer 3 3 0 0 Heliocentric / Planetary transfer 4 4 0 0 Total 114 110 3 1
References Notes
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