The New Space Era
The modern era of spaceflight — reusable and commercial rockets carrying cargo and crew to orbit, alongside a new generation of robotic explorers reaching Mars, the comets, Pluto, and interstellar space.
In brief
The modern era: commercial launch and a new generation of robotic exploration.
Events of this era
Hayabusa returned the first samples ever collected from an asteroid, from Itokawa, to Earth.
- 6 August 2012Curiosity Lands on Mars
The car-sized Curiosity rover lands in Gale Crater using the daring sky-crane manoeuvre, beginning a long study of Mars's ancient habitability.
- August 2012Voyager 1 Enters Interstellar Space
Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause and becomes the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, still returning data from beyond the Sun's bubble.
Rosetta's Philae lander made the first soft landing on the nucleus of a comet.
ESA's Rosetta becomes the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and, with its Philae lander, the first to soft-land on one — comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- 14 July 2015New Horizons Flies Past Pluto
After a nine-year journey, New Horizons sweeps past Pluto, revealing an astonishingly varied world and completing the first reconnaissance of the classical Solar System.
- 30 May 2020First Commercial Crew to the ISS
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 carries astronauts to the ISS, the first crewed orbital flight launched by a private company and the return of crewed launch to American soil.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 was the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched by a private company.
Within months of each other, Japan's Hayabusa2 delivers samples of asteroid Ryugu to Earth and NASA's OSIRIS-REx collects a sample from asteroid Bennu, opening a new age of asteroid sample return.
The Ingenuity helicopter made the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet.
The tiny Ingenuity helicopter, carried by the Perseverance rover, lifts off from the surface of Mars — the first powered, controlled flight on another planet.
- 25 December 2021Launch of the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope launches and unfolds a giant segmented mirror a million miles from Earth, opening the infrared universe and the era of studying the first galaxies.
Knowledge connections
- ContainsCuriosity Lands on Mars
- ContainsVoyager 1 Enters Interstellar Space
- ContainsRosetta and Philae Reach a Comet
- ContainsNew Horizons Flies Past Pluto
- ContainsFirst Commercial Crew to the ISS
- ContainsOSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 Sample Asteroids
- ContainsLaunch of the James Webb Space Telescope
- ContainsIngenuity Makes the First Powered Flight on Another World
- ContainsFirst Comet Landing
- ContainsFirst Asteroid Sample Return
- ContainsFirst Privately-Launched Crew to Orbit
- ContainsFirst Powered Flight on Another World
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.