2024 was another busy year for space science, with many new missions, successes, and discoveries across the solar system and beyond. Three new missions were launched to the Moon, while one mission was canceled, and Curiosity and Perseverance continued to explore and make discoveries in their respective regions on Mars.
Beyond the Earth-Moon system and Mars, NASA’s historic Europa Clipper mission finally launched to Jupiter, Hera launched to investigate the damage dealt by DART in 2022, Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun, and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 continued to send data from beyond the solar system while experiencing issues.
In 2024, the Americas were treated to two solar eclipses: a total solar eclipse across North America in April and an annular solar eclipse across South America in October. Extreme solar activity from the Sun also resulted in aurora that stretched to low latitudes across Earth.
The Moon’s shadow, or umbra, is pictured covering portions of the Canada and and the U.S. from the ISS soared into the solar eclipse. (Credit: NASA)
It was a big year for X-ray astronomy, with the Japanese X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) telescope releasing its first images in January. Later in the year, the Einstein Probe and Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) X-ray telescopes were launched. Throughout the year, however, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory faced significant budget cuts that may result in an early end to the telescope’s mission. Outside of X-ray astronomy, the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid wide-angle telescope, and more continued to make groundbreaking observations and discoveries about our universe.
The momentum from 2024 is expected to continue in 2025, with the launches of several new commercial missions to the Moon, the new SPHEREx telescope, and five new missions to study the Sun and its solar wind. Europa Clipper, Hera, Lucy, and other missions throughout our solar system will complete flybys of planets, asteroids, and moons while Earth experiences total lunar and partial solar eclipses.
New Moon missions launch, land, and get canceled
On Jan. 8, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander launched atop the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket. The lander, capable of delivering up to 100 kg to the lunar surface, was outfitted with several science instruments from NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). In addition, Peregrine carried a rover for Carnegie Mellon University and five small robots for the Mexican Space Agency alongside commemorative payloads from commercial providers.
While Vulcan’s debut went seamlessly, Peregrine failed to reach the Moon and reentered Earth’s atmosphere instead. Later in the year, Astrobotic’s investigation concluded that a failed helium pressure control valve caused Peregrine’s oxidizer tank to over-pressurize and rupture. The loss of the oxidizer tank prevented Peregrine from reaching its primary objective of landing on the Moon. Despite missing the Moon, Astrobotic still collected valuable data and experience for its upcoming Griffin lander.
One of Griffin’s payloads was supposed to be NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), but the agency canceled the project in July as a cost-cutting effort. While the rover had already been built, its operational costs had increased following several delays. NASA offered the rover to its industry partners, but it is unknown if any were interested.
A few weeks after Peregrine’s launch, the Japanese Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down softly on the lunar surface, albeit not in the planned orientation. Launched in September 2023, SLIM was outfitted with a few science payloads, but its main objective was demonstrating its high-precision landing capability. While it did land only 60 m from its targeted landing site, it landed in the wrong orientation after one of its two main engines lost its nozzle during descent.
Regardless, SLIM’s solar panels provided enough power for the lander to operate briefly near the end of the lunar day. The lander used its cameras to observe surrounding rocks, and its two ultra-small rovers also completed their respective mission objectives. Despite not being designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the lunar night, SLIM survived three lunar nights. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lost contact with the lander in late April, wrapping up an imperfect but successful mission.
The second mission to touch down on the lunar surface in 2024, the Intuitive Machines 1 (IM-1) mission, also ended up in the wrong orientation. On Feb. 22, Intuitive Machines attempted to land its Nova-C lander Odysseus on the lunar surface for the first time. It became the first commercial lander to successfully touch down on the Moon’s surface but tipped over shortly after.
Nevertheless, Odysseus operated on the lunar surface for nearly a week and returned data from its NASA-provided and commercial payloads. Unlike SLIM, Odysseus did not survive the lunar night.
Chang’e 6 on the surface of the Moon. (Credit: CNSA)
The final mission to visit the Moon in 2024 was the Chinese Chang’e 6, which launched in early May. Nearly a month later, Chang’e 6 touched down in the Apollo Basin on the far side of the Moon on June 1.
The mission’s main objective was to return a sample from the far side of the Moon for the first time. Chang’e 6 collected samples from the surface and at a depth of one meter, which were subsequently sent back to Earth. The capsule containing the samples touched down in China on June 25, after which the samples were extracted and handed over to the scientific community.
In addition to the sample collection, Chang’e 6 also carried a small rover and international science payloads. On its way to the Moon, the spacecraft deployed a Pakistani CubeSat. A French radon detector, a Swedish negative ion detector, and an Italian retroreflector were installed on the lander and operated on the lunar surface.
Martian robots continue to study the Red Planet
228 million km away from Earth, Mars and its collection of robots, both in orbit and on the surface, have continued to explore and uncover the secrets of the red, rusty world. Missions like NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express missions observed Mars from above, taking imagery and measurements of different regions and surface features on the Martian surface. Meanwhile, on the surface, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers made significant progress in their exploration of Gale Crater and Jezero Crater, respectively.
Just before the beginning of 2024, Perseverance and its helicopter companion, Ingenuity, passed 1,000 sols on Mars. A few weeks later, on Jan. 18, Ingenuity took to the skies for its 72nd and final flight on Mars. The helicopter’s rotors broke after navigation issues caused by difficult terrain put the helicopter into an attitude that caused too much strain on the rotors. Ingenuity was permanently grounded after the flight when it was discovered that a piece of one of the rotor blades had fallen off, and additional damage to the other blades had been sustained.
Ingenuity on Aug. 2, 2023. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)
While Ingenuity can no longer fly, as long as surrounding environmental conditions allow, it will continue to collect data on surface temperature and the performance of its solar panel, batteries, and other electronics. Ingenuity’s team believes the helicopter could continue collecting data as a stationary platform for approximately 20 years. If Ingenuity is ever recovered by a robotic or human mission to Mars, its ~20 years of stored data could show scientists long-term weather and environmental patterns and phenomena.
Meanwhile, in Gale Crater and on the slopes of Mount Sharp, the Curiosity rover discovered pure sulfur rocks after cracking open a small rock with its wheels. Inside the rock were yellow sulfur crystals, the first time sulfur crystals had been spotted on Mars. Additionally, the sulfur within these crystals was elemental (pure) sulfur, different from the more common sulfur-based minerals Curiosity has detected before.
The sulfur in the rocks was likely formed from water soaking into them billions of years ago after they traveled through extreme water flows. After investigating the initial sulfur rock, Curiosity was instructed to look for more. Ultimately, it found an entire field of pure sulfur rocks in the Gediz Vallis channel on Mount Sharp.
In July, Perseverance discovered a rock named “Cheyava Falls” in the Bright Angel region of Jezero Crater. The region was once an ancient river, and Perseverance’s instruments identified organic compounds within the rock, which are essential for all known life. While not an explicit indicator of ancient life on Mars, the chemical characteristics of Cheyava Falls were likely formed by life forms. The rock served as Perseverance’s 22nd surface sample.
The rock named Cheyava Falls with leopard spots visible in the center. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Shortly after investigating Cheyava Falls and the Bright Angel region, Perseverance set off on its fifth science campaign since landing in Jezero Crater. The fifth science campaign saw Perseverance climb the western rim of Jezero, where it faced some of its most challenging and steepest terrain yet. After nearly six months of climbing, Perseverance finally reached the top of the crater rim on Dec. 12 after dealing with terrain much more slippery than initially thought.
With its climb behind it, the rover will explore a region called “Witch Hazel Hill.” Data from MRO and other orbital spacecraft have shown that this region contains light-toned layered bedrock similar to the rock in Bright Angel, where Cheyava Falls is located.
Solar system missions continue to progress and hit milestones
Other missions have been exploring the Solar System beyond the Moon and Mars, with some studying the Sun from close by and others exploring the Solar System’s outer edges. In 2024, two more missions were launched to study what’s beyond the Earth-Moon system and the red planet.
On Oct. 7, ESA’s Hera mission left Earth on a trajectory toward the asteroid Didymos and its companion Dimorphos. The two were visited by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2022, which purposefully collided with Dimorphos and changed its orbit. Scheduled to arrive at the system in 2026, Hera will study the asteroids and the marks left by DART in more detail and demonstrate new technology for planetary defense missions.
A week after Hera’s launch, a Falcon Heavy took to the skies from the Kennedy Space Center, sending NASA’s long-awaited Europa Clipper on a journey to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The agency built this spacecraft to study the oceans underneath the Jovian moon’s icy surface. These are among the most promising locations that could potentially harbor life beyond Earth.
Europa Clipper, the largest spacecraft NASA has ever sent to another world, is equipped with a suite of instruments to study Europa in detail and confirm its habitability. Even though it is now on its way to Jupiter, Europa Clipper has a long journey ahead. It is set to arrive at the Jovian system no earlier than 2030 and have its first encounter with Europa a year later.
Another mission destined for Europa is ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), which has been on its way to Jupiter since spring 2023. It is on a mission to study Jupiter and its icy moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. This year, it got to test and calibrate its instruments close to home.
In August, the spacecraft swung by the Moon and then Earth for the first-ever double gravity assist — a precise maneuver during which the spacecraft altered its trajectory using the Moon’s and Earth’s gravity. During this encounter, Juice pointed its instruments at Earth and confirmed our planet’s habitability. The spacecraft is now on its way to Venus, which it will fly by for another gravity assist in August 2025.
Over at the Solar System’s smallest planet, BepiColombo — the joint mission between ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to send two probes to Mercury — experienced propulsion issues in April. As a result of the problems, the spacecraft’s thrusters can no longer operate at full power. ESA subsequently adjusted the mission planning to allow the spacecraft to proceed with reduced thrust.
While these problems ultimately did not endanger BepiColombo’s mission, the spacecraft’s arrival in orbit around the planet has been delayed by a year to late 2026 as a result. The new mission plan sent the spacecraft on two Mercury flybys last September and December. During these visits, the spacecraft used its instruments to study the planet’s surface in infrared and map its magnetic field. A sixth and final Mercury flyby is coming up on Jan. 8.
NASA’s Parker Solar probe flew by Venus in November, changing its path to get closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has ever been. On Dec. 24, the spacecraft reached its perihelion — or closest approach to the Sun — at 6.1 million km, flying faster than any other human-made object. NASA reestablished contact with the probe a few days later, confirming it had survived the intense heat.
Meanwhile, NASA’s Voyager 1 is farther from the Sun than any other human-made object. The aging spacecraft had been sending unintelligible data back to Earth since November 2023 due to a computer problem. In April, Engineers solved the issue by reprogramming the spacecraft’s computer to bypass a faulty memory chip. Voyager 1 returned to normal science operations in June.
Illustration of a Voyager spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
However, this was not the end of Voyager 1’s problems. A few months later, the spacecraft needed NASA’s attention again after a clogged fuel line degraded thruster performance. The team reconfigured the spacecraft to use another, less clogged, set of thrusters.
In October, NASA lost communication with the spacecraft after its fault protection system shut off Voyager 1’s main X-band radio antenna. Engineers managed to contact the spacecraft again through the much weaker S-band transmitter and resolve the problems a month later. Despite its ever-decreasing power levels, all is back to normal for Voyager 1.
The spacecraft’s interstellar companion, Voyager 2 also suffered from its limited power this year. In September, NASA engineers turned off the spacecraft’s plasma science instrument to reduce power consumption. Both Voyagers are now operating four out of their 10 science instruments to study interstellar space.
New X-ray telescopes launch; Hubble, Webb, and others continue to make discoveries
As mentioned, 2024 was a huge year for X-ray astronomy, with the launches of new telescopes, the releases of first images, and a variety of budget and cancellation issues.
XRISM image of Galaxy cluster Abell 2319 superimposed on other X-ray images. (Credit: Credit: X-ray: JAXA, Optical: The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS))
The year kicked off with the release of XRISM’s first observations. JAXA released images and observations collected by the telescope’s soft X-ray imager (Xtend) and soft X-ray spectrometer (Resolve) instruments, which completed their preliminary functional verification in mid-2023.
The first image, taken by Xtend, shows the galaxy cluster Abell 2319, which itself is the result of two galaxy clusters colliding. The purple hues in the image indicate the distribution of high-temperature plasma emitting X-rays. The second observation, taken by Resolve, shows the X-ray spectrum of the supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located approximately 160,000 light-years from Earth.
Another mission that released images this year was ESA’s Euclid telescope. On May 23, ESA published the telescope’s second set of images, highlighting the X-ray telescope’s ability to peer into the darkest regions of the universe. The five images show the Dorado group of galaxies, galaxy cluster Abell 2390, star-forming region Messier 78, spiral galaxy NGC 6744, and galaxy cluster Abell 2764.
Euclid also officially began its Wide Survey on Feb. 14, which, when completed, will have covered approximately 14,000 square degrees of the extragalactic sky. The wide survey is the main survey of Euclid’s mission and must be completed for the telescope to meet its mission objectives. Euclid will primarily observe a dark region of the sky between the Milky Way and the solar system plane. Observing this region will allow Euclid to view the most distant and oldest galaxies in our universe that cannot be observed due to the Milky Way and solar system obscuring views. After completing one percent of the survey, ESA released the survey’s results to that point as a “teaser” for what’s to come.
Two new X-ray missions were launched in 2024. On Jan. 9, the joint ESA/Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Einstein Probe launched atop a Chinese Chang Zheng 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. Einstein Probe’s main objectives are to identify inactive black holes, detect the electromagnetic counterparts of events that produce gravitational waves (e.g. neutron star mergers), and permanently monitor the entire sky to detect and measure X-ray sources throughout the universe. The telescope is located in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and ESA and CAS have already released Einstein Probe’s first results.
The second X-ray mission to launch this year was the joint French Space Agency (CNES)/Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) mission. It launched on June 22 atop a Chang Zheng 2C rocket from Xichang. SVOM studies the explosions of massive stars throughout our universe by observing and measuring the gamma-ray bursts produced by these explosions.
However, X-ray astronomy has also seen significant struggles this year, most notably with NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory. The telescope, which launched in July 1999 with Space Shuttle Columbia, has seen significant budget cuts this year after the U.S. Congress decided to cut NASA’s budget in March, which led the agency to reduce the overall funding for Chandra, which could lead to an early end to the telescope’s mission. However, in June, U.S. senators urged NASA to reconsider the budget cuts to Chandra and its teams, which the agency ultimately accepted. Chandra’s future remains a big question mark for the future of X-ray astronomy and will need to be monitored closely by the community in the coming years.
Beyond X-ray astronomy, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, comprised of an infrared telescope in a Sun-synchronous orbit, officially concluded this year on July 31. The telescope would later reenter Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 1. Originally launched as Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2009, WISE completed its mission in February 2011 but was reactivated as NEOWISE in 2013.
Artist’s impression of the exoplanet WASP-121 b and its parent star WASP-121. Credit: NASA, ESA, Q. Changeat et al., M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)
The Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope continued making groundbreaking observations throughout the year. Hubble was used to observe weather patterns within a distant exoplanet’s atmosphere in January and then to discover a rare black hole within the Omega Centauri globular cluster in July.
Meanwhile, Webb’s immensely powerful suite of infrared instruments collected the first direct evidence of a neutron star after discovering one within the remnants of a young supernova named SN 1987A in February. Webb also discovered aurorae on a brown dwarf, identified a carbon-rich protoplanetary disk around a low-mass star, found never-before-seen atmospheric features in the atmosphere above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and imaged the coldest and oldest exoplanet ever to be directly imaged.
Together, Hubble and Webb were used for various observations in 2024, notably to collect the first spectroscopic observations of some of the oldest galaxies in the universe, some being born during the first one billion years of the universe. These galaxies are thought to be a product of the reionization of the universe — the dark, star-less period of the universe wherein a dense fog of hydrogen gas covered the universe until the first stars began to ionize the hydrogen gas around them.
Solar eclipses and extreme solar activity
The Americas were fortunate to experience two solar eclipses in 2024: one total and one annular eclipse. North America was up first, with a total solar eclipse crossing the continent from Mexico to Canada on April 8. The eclipse path began in the Pacific Ocean before crossing onto land along the western coast of Mexico. After crossing through Mexico, the Moon’s shadow entered the U.S. state of Texas and followed a path covering Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The shadow then briefly crossed into Canada before exiting land and moving over the Atlantic.
The second solar eclipse of the year was an annular eclipse that crossed the southern tip of South America. While the Moon’s shadow primarily stayed over the open Pacific, it did cross through southern Chile and Argentina at its end.
In 2024, the Sun also reached its maximum phase in its 11-year solar cycle, resulting in unprecedented levels of solar activity seen and felt across Earth. While the immense solar activity lasted throughout the year, it peaked in May when several solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurred in succession. Many of these flares and CMEs were blown off in the direction of Earth, and when the charged particles ejected during these events interacted with Earth’s magnetosphere, significant and intense displays of aurora covered Earth. Measurements following the events showed that Earth had experienced its strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades and that many of the aurora observed across Earth were the strongest and most prominent to be seen in 500 years.
What’s next: 2025 in space science
Like 2024, the next year will see multiple attempts to land on the Moon. This year, four lunar landings are planned, for which all landers are built and operated by commercial providers.
The first two are expected to launch in January, sharing a Falcon 9. One of the passengers on this launch is Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, which will be the company’s first attempt at a lunar landing. The lander carries 10 instruments for NASA, commercial partners, universities, and other research institutes.
Blue Ghost will fly alongside Hakuto-R Mission 2 from the Japanese company ispace. This is ispace’s second attempt to land on the Moon after the first Hakuto-R mission in 2023, during which the lander depleted its propellants 5 km above the lunar surface before crashing into the Moon. The payloads for the second Hakuto-R Mission are a small rover, three experiments, and two commemorative payloads.
Engineers prepare Hakuto-R for shipment to Florida. (Credit: ispace)
Later in the year, Intuitive Machines will attempt another lunar landing. One of Nova-C’s payloads will be NASA’s Polar Resources Ice-Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1), which will be permanently attached to the lander. PRIME-1 will drill into the surface to extract regolith for water analysis and to study the volatile gases that escape from the excavated material. The mission, IM-2 is set to launch in late February.
Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, scheduled to launch near the end of the year, is the final lunar landing planned for 2025. As mentioned, NASA’s VIPER rover is no longer expected to fly on this mission.
NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is scheduled to launch in February. This space telescope will study the sky in infrared, observing stars and galaxies in 102 colors, or different wavelengths of light. By mapping the entire sky, astronomers want to search for the ingredients of life in planetary systems and explore the origin of the Universe and the history of galaxies.
Multiple Mars-related milestones are planned for March. Europa Clipper and Hera will both fly by the red planet and use its gravitational pull to alter their trajectories.
Another mission to Mars may lift off around the same time, as NASA plans to launch its Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) to Mars in spring. Originally, this mission was scheduled for September 2024, but delays with the launch vehicle — Blue Origin’s New Glenn — caused the ESCAPADE mission to miss its launch window.
In April, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is set to pass by asteroid Donaldjohanson on its way towards the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Lucy passed by Earth for a gravity assist in November 2024 and previously studied asteroid Dinikesh, revealing it had a moon consisting of two touching objects called a contact binary.
Finally, several missions will also be launched to study the Sun and its influence next year. The first is NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH), which will launch together with SPHEREx in February. Another mission to study the heliosphere, NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), is expected to launch in September.
NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor 2 (TSIS-2), and Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) are all scheduled to launch next year to study the solar wind and how it interacts with Earth. ESA and CAS are collaborating on a similar mission called Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile), which is expected to be launched near the end of the year.
(Lead image: Top left: composite image showing the phases of the April 8 total solar eclipse (Credit: Tyler Gray for NSF). Top right: Perseverance takes a selfie with the recently sampled Cheyava Falls rock (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS). Bottom left: Artist’s depiction of Europa Clipper in orbit around Jupiter (Credit: NASA). Bottom right: Hubble and Webb composite image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5468 (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Adam G. Riess))
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