Future Timeline of Space Exploration [WIP]

[NASAFanboy]

NOTE: This thread is not affliated with any other thread on the forum. It was not made to be similar to any other thread on the forum. It simply shows my predications for spaceflight from 2013-(Whenever I choose to end.)

This is a timeline of the future, and is currently a WIP. Feel free to add your thoughts and opnions, I wil be molding the timeline based on them.

2013

February: Taurus XL 3110 rocket to launch NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

April 17: Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket will undergo a flight test, to test the capabilites of of the rocket and the Cyngus Spacecraft.

Oct. 17-18: NASA Juno spacecraft to flyby Earth on its way to Jupiter

October-November: India to launch a unmanned orbiter to Mars.

November: NASA's Atlas 5-401 rocket to launch Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) probe

November: NASA's Minotaur V rocket to send Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, LADEE, into the lunar orbit.

German Space Agency, DLR, to launch a $658-million remote-sensing and cartography spacecraft into the lunar orbit

NASA to retire Hubble Space Telescope, HST.

China's Long-March-3B rocket to launch Chang'e-3 lunar lander. A second vehicle, Chang'e-4, was expected to back up the mission as of 2010.

Japan to introduce the Epsilon light-weight rocket, replacing the M-5 launch vehicle, and carrying a Sprint-A planetary telescope.

2014

Early 2013-Late 2014: NASA to launch the first unmanned version of the Orion spacecraft

Early 2014: NASA to launch Joint Dark Energy Mission

January: European Rosetta spacecraft to end its hibernation period

Aug. 20: NASA's Dawn spacecraft to enter orbit around Ceres.

August: European Rosetta spacecraft to enter orbit around comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Fall: NASA's MAVEN spacecraft to enter orbit around Mars.

Sept. 21: India's unmanned probe to enter orbit around Mars.

November: The Rosetta spacecraft to drop Philae lander on the surface of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Dec. 31: The last chance for a private company to claim a $15-million prize of the X-Prize Foundation for soft-landing a rover on the Moon (Paid for by Google.inc), capable of moving and relying images to Earth.

2014 the earliest: Japan to launch Hayabusa-2 spacecraft on a mission to a carbon-rich asteroid.

Bigelow and Boeing companies to start assembling a 690-cubic-meter space station in the Earth orbit.

NASA to launch a visible-light coronagraph to search for planets outside Solar System.

NASA to send three small landers on the surface of the Moon.

China to test fly the Chang Zheng 5 (CZ-5) rocket, capable of delivering 25 tons to the low Earth orbit. It might be used to carry a space station around 2020.

Brazil to conduct its fourth attempt to orbit a satellite with a domestically built vehicle from Alcantara.

2015

May: NASA to launch a Solar Probe Plus, which would fly closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft. (Funded as of 2008, by 2011, the launch date slipped to 2017.)

July 14: New Horizons spacecraft to flyby Pluto and its moon Charon.

July 19: NASA's Solar Probe Plus to conduct a flyby of Venus.

July 26: End of primary mission for NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Aug. 15: Europe's Ariane-5 rocket to launch the 2,300-kilogram BepiColombo probe toward Mercury from Kourou.

December: The Rosetta spacecraft to end its mission as Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet flies past Jupiter.

2014-2015: China to inaugurate its fourth and southernmost launch facility in Wenchang, Hainan island.

NASA to add an inflatable module to the ISS.

China to launch a Venus orbiter.

China to launch a hard X-ray modulation telescope to study black holes, HXMT

China's first solid-fuel launch vehicle Long March-11 to fly its first mission.

More to come.....I found a old version of it on a website, but I updated, revised, and modifed it to post it here.

Edited April 19, 2013 by NASAFanboy

[Kryten]

A few points, mostly just updates needed;

Shenzhou 9 already flew last year

The first launch of Orion is listed twice

OCO-2's flying on a delta-II (I think the last) NET 2014

Moonlite's not happening. I think the whole project was functionally stillborn

Liberty was removed from the CCDev program, and is probably cancelled

[NASAFanboy]

Thanks. I changed it.

[Holo]

For 2017, you can have the CHEOPS spacecraft and the american SLS (exploration mission 1 to be exact)

[NASAFanboy]

Yes, I will be adding that. I will also add possible evenets such as the moonbase by 2022 (Due to the Congressional Support of the REAL Space act.)

[MmPMSFmM]

Later this year SpaceX will make the first test flight with Falcon Heavy, capable of lifting 2x the amount of payload which the Space Shuttle was capable of and only the Saturn V could lift more payload to orbit than the falcon heavy.

[Rune]

Yes, I will be adding that. I will also add possible evenets such as the moonbase by 2022 (Due to the Congressional Support of the REAL Space act.)

Congressional support? Where did you get that impression? I will believe that when they show the budget with the money for it. As long as all they speak about is "needing a new vision" and "within existing budgets", IMO, it's just empty rhetoric to win over people like you.

Rune. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

[Rune]

Later this year SpaceX will make the first test flight with Falcon Heavy, capable of lifting 2x the amount of payload which the Space Shuttle was capable of and only the Saturn V could lift more payload to orbit than the falcon heavy.

One word: "Energia". Read up on your rocket history.

Rune. Not that Falcon Heavy is anything short of awesome.

[Warshawski]

Both Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources plan to launch prospecting spacecraft in 2015. Well, prospecting in PR's case is a telescope, but still.

[Scotius]

Prototype 200 kW VASIMR engine is scheduled to be installed and tried on ISS in 2015.

[NASAFanboy]

Congressional support? Where did you get that impression? I will believe that when they show the budget with the money for it. As long as all they speak about is "needing a new vision" and "within existing budgets", IMO, it's just empty rhetoric to win over people like you.

Rune. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

Let's not start a flame war here. Considering the asteriod plan is unpopular and the main supporters are from the space states, I'd say it has around a 60% chance

[Kryten]

The act requires congress to give NASA finding consistent with setting up a moon base. Do you really expect the act to be passed by the same congress that won't even give the amounts Bolden is asking for now?

[Scotius]

One year's worth of USA military budget i way bigger than ALL the money NASA got since it's been created. Damn shame, it's all i have to say.

[Holo]

Try the 2016 trace gas orbiter, the 2018 exomars rover and the 2020 curiosity-based rover.

[NASAFanboy]

The act requires congress to give NASA finding consistent with setting up a moon base. Do you really expect the act to be passed by the same congress that won't even give the amounts Bolden is asking for now?

As I said, asteroids are unpopular. Why would Congress fund somethimg they don't like? I think the Bill has a rsther good chance of.success. Other than that thanks fot the suggestions. They help alot with thr timrlines accuracy.

[Drunkrobot]

In 2019, the Sabre engines (Reaction Engines) will be going through test flights.

[Rune]

Let's not start a flame war here. Considering the asteriod plan is unpopular and the main supporters are from the space states, I'd say it has around a 60% chance

Oh, I didn't intend to flame you, sorry if I gave that impression. I was just trying to correct you on the "congressional support" part. Congressional support is shown on budgets, not words, and right now that is exactly 0 for a Moon base, and only marginal (100 million if the budget goes through, out of 17 billion) for an asteroid mission. No matter what congressman Wolf keeps on screaming (I'm actually starting to hate that guy, BTW).

Congress gets enough pork going to the space states with SLS+Orion. When they cancel it, a new pork rocket will take its place without actually having to build or launch anything. If they actually wanted to get something done, they would buy something like 50 existing ELV's and give NASA money to put stuff on top of them.

Rune. It sound sarcastic, but I'm just going by recent history here.

[M5000]

I didn't seem to see the James Webb Space Telescope on there anywhere... Unless I'm bad at reading. Any particular reason for this?