Space travel is all about momentum.
Rocketsturn their fuel into momentumthat carries people, satellites and science itself forward into space.
SpaceXsent eight astronauts and 1 ton of suppliesto the International Space Station for NASA.
The sixtourist spaceflightsin 2021 were a record.
Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022.
If things go well, this will smash last years record.
The SpaceX Starship performed a number of test flights in 2021 and is set to do its first real mission in 2022.
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Im anastronomerwho studies supermassive black holes and distant galaxies.
I have also written a book abouthumanitys future in space.
Theres a lot to look forward to in 2022.
The Moon will get more attention than it has had in decades, as will Jupiter.
The largest rocket ever built will make its first flight.
And of course, the James Webb Space Telescope will start sending back its first images.
I, for one, cant wait.
NASA will finally debut its much delayedSpace Launch System.
The immediate goal is to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2025.
Russia isgetting in on the lunar act, too.
The SpaceXStarship themost powerful rocketever launched will get its first orbital launch in 2022.
Part of what makes Starship so important is how cheap it will make bringing things into space.
If successful, the price of each flight will beUS$2 million.
The reduction in costs by a factor of a thousand will be agame-changer for the economics of space travel.
After decades of neglect, Jupiter will finally get some love, too.
The European Space AgencysIcy Moons Exploreris scheduled to head off to the gas giant midyear.
Once there, it will spend three years studying three of Jupiters moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
These moons are all thought to have subsurface liquid water, making them potentiallyhabitable environments.
Its instruments will measure thethickness of the ice shell, which covers an ocean of liquid water.
The 21-foot (6.5-meter) telescope has seven times the collecting area of the Hubble Space Telescope.
When astronomers look out in space they lookback in time.
First light marks the limit of what humanity can see of the universe.
Prepare to be a time traveler in 2022.
