2010 in spaceflight
The Dragon capsule's maiden launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on 8 December 2010.
|
|
| Orbital launches | |
|---|---|
| First | 16 January |
| Last | 29 December |
| Total | 74 |
| Successes | 70 |
| Failures | 4 |
| Partial failures | 0 |
| Catalogued | 70 |
| Rockets | |
| Maiden flights |
Atlas V 501 Atlas V 531 Falcon 9 v1.0 GSLV Mk. II Minotaur IV |
| Retirements |
Delta II 7420 Molniya-M Kosmos-3M |
| Manned flights | |
| Orbital | 7 |
| Total travellers | 31 |
The year 2010 in spaceflight saw a number of notable events in worldwide spaceflight activities. These included the first test flight of the SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply spacecraft, which is intended to resupply the International Space Station (ISS), and the maiden flights of the Falcon 9 and Minotaur IV rockets. In June 2010, South Korea conducted a second Naro-1 launch, after the failure of the rocket's maiden flight in 2009; however, the second attempt also failed. The Kosmos-3M was retired from service, making its final flight in April. The Molniya-M was also retired from service, making its final flight in September.
The first suborbital launch of 2010 was conducted at 23:00 GMT on 10 January, when a Black Brant IX sounding rocket was launched as a target for the Boeing YAL-1 airborne-laser platform. On 11 January, China conducted an ABM test, involving two missiles. The first orbital launch occurred at 16:12 UTC on 16 January, when a Long March 3C launched the Compass-G1 navigation satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre.
Seventy-four orbital launches were attempted in 2010, with seventy being successful and four ending in failure. The last orbital launch was made on 29 December, when an Ariane 5ECA launched the Hispasat-1E and Koreasat 6 spacecraft from Guiana Space Centre, near Kourou.
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Wikipedia