1996 Long Dong Silver

2009: assessment of a year of Astronautics

E' giunto il momento di fare il bilancio di questo 2009 in campo spaziale. Cerchiamo di ricordare i punti principali; L'anno è iniziato in grande stile con l'inaugurazione dell'Anno Internazionale dell'Astronomia manifestazione che ha animato una miriade di incontri, eventi, rassegne e iniziative per avvicinare le persone alle stelle. Ma il 2009 è was also an important year for the High Energy Astrophysics and the protagonists were AGILE, a little gem all Italian launched in April 2007, ending, NASA mission with a "heart" Italian (revealed sensitive LAT Large Area Telescope has been realized in our country) and SWIFT, another NASA mission with Italian participation. The new satellites in the constellation Sky-Med showed their worth with the continuous monitoring of the earthquake-stricken areas of Abruzzo April 6. In May, the ESA launched the pair of space telescopes Herschel and Planck, two other missions with significant Italian contribution, which immediately started to provide unprecedented data on the early Universe and on objects far away and rising stars. How can we not forget the shuttle mission to repair Hubble Space Telescope and the further expansion of the International Space Station which, for the first time, was able to accommodate a full crew of 6 people and which also saw the first European commander, Frank De Winne . After debuting in 2008, ATV this year it fell to the Japanese HTV bring supplies to the ISS. Russia has shown its proverbial reliability of the Soyuz launch to the International Space Station. Always on the side of human flight ESA has also chosen six new astronauts, and Italy has done a master with the choice of Samantha and Luke Cristoforetti Unless Parmitano. But in July astronautics also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing with a series of events, even in Italy, and that you are worthily ended with the confirmation of the discovery of water on the Moon by several American missions. NASA managed to launch the first test of new rocket Ares family even if the Commission Augustine, established by President Obama, made a report on the U.S. space program was very negative and that still awaits a solution. Well that ends this year was a year of very hard, and Astronautics lived all that is preparing a 2010 will give us as rich and perhaps more than the past. But novelty aside what is coming will surely be remembered as the year of the closing of the Shuttle program after thirty years of honorable, for better or for worse service, Earth / Space. I just hope that the choices of the White House, to which we are bound also we Europeans, we do not take a step back in the long road to the conquest of space.