* Rosetta - Rosetta is ESA’s Comet obiter and lander was launched on 2nd March 2004 by an Ariane 5G rocket. The target comet will be Churyumov-Gerasimenk.

April 2004

  * Gravity Probe B  ? Gravity Probe B was launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base on 20 April, 2004 by a Delta 2 Rocket. It will test two extraordinary, unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

May 2004

 * GoFast Rocket  ?The first private rocket to make it into space was Civilian Space Exploration Team's 6.5m GoFast rocket. The GoFast rocket - named after one of the project's sponsors - lifted off from the Black Rock Desert on Monday 17 May 2004. It was witnessed by officials from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

 * SpaceShipOne - Scaled Composites succcessfully completed the first manned suborbital flight of its SpaceShipOne spaceplane on June 21, 2004. SpaceShipOne was the first privately developed commercial sub-orbital manned space flight.

July 2004

 * Aura Spacecraft - Earth Observing System (EOS) Aura was launched on 15 July from Vandenburg Air Force Base, California on a Delta 2 Rocket. The NASA mission will study the Earth's ozone, air quality and climate.

  * Double Star satellites - Tan Ce 2 (TC-2) is the the second of two Double Star satellites. It was launched by the Chinese on 25 July 2004 aboard a Long March 2C rocket. The spacecraft was placed into polar orbit. The Double Star Program is a joint effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese National Space Administration (CASA). They will study Earth's magnetosphere.

 * First X-Prize Flight Notice - Scaled Composites gave its 60 day notice that it will be making an attempt to win the Ansari X-Prize competition on September 29 from the Mojave Spaceport, and then repeating the feat no later than October 13.

August 2004

  * Messenger: The Messenger (Mercury Surface Space Environment Geochemistry and Ranging) Spacecraft was launched on August 2, 2004. Previously it was going to be launched on May 11, 2004 and July 30, 2004. It may become the first spacecraft to orbit Planet Mercury and the second spacecraft to visit mercury since Mariner 10 (USA) explored it in 1974 and 1975 via three flybys.

  * Canadian da Vinci Project Team - The Canadian da Vinci Project Team unveilled its Wild Fire Mark VI spacecraft on August 5th 2004. It also notified the Ansari X-Prize of its intention to launch its rocket on October 2nd, 2004. The flight was to take place in Kindersley, Saskatchewan, Canada. Unforunately the launch did not take place on October 2nd. The da Vinci team's craft is designed to be launched from a reusable, drifting helium balloon from an altitude of 80,000ft (24.4km). It will be Canada's first manned space launch.

* Progress Spacecraft ?The 15th Progress Spacecraft M-50 was launched on August 11th to the International Space Station from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a Soyuz Rocket. It will carry supplies for the ISS.

* Final Atlas 2 Flight ?The final Atlas 2 (Atlas IIAS) was launched on 31 August 2004 from Pad 36A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The payload was a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite (NROL-1). It was the 63rd flight and last flight of any Atlas II version. It was also the final flight of the Rocketdyne MA-5A engine after 47 years service. Future missions will involve the Atlas III or the next-generation Atlas V rockets.

September 2004

 * Genesis Samples Return to Earth: Genesis Spacecraft returned solar wind samples in a capsule on September 8, 2004. The Genesis sample return capsule landed within the projected ellipse path in the Utah Test and Training Range, but its parachutes did not open. It impacted the ground at nearly 320 kilometres per hour. The capsule was to be grabbed by a helicopter in mid-air above the Utah desert.

* Edusat - Edusat is India's first-ever satellite dedicated exclusively for education. It was launched on September 20, 2004 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikotain in Southern India and on the the first operational flight of GSLV and the third in the GSLV series. It will transmit lectures and seminars to remotest parts of India.

 * First X-Prize Flight - Scaled Composites completed the first flight to win the Ansari X-Prize competition on September 29 from the Mojave Spaceport.

* Second X-Prize Flight - Scaled Composites will attempt to win the Ansari X-Prize competition for the 10 Million Dollar Prize on October 2 from the Mojave Spaceport. Good luck!

* Soyuz TMA-5 Spacecraft ?ISS-10 crew was launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-5 on October 14 on a Soyuz FG rocket. The new crew are Russian cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao. Sharipov and Chiao are to replace Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke. Shargin will return to Earth with them.

November 2004

* Swift ?The Swift spacecraft (NASA) is a gamma-ray burst observatory. It was launched on 20 November, 2004 into a low-Earth orbit on a Delta rocket. The launch has been delayed from 1 September, 2004, 7 October, 2004 and 8 November, 2004. It will study the mysteries of the most powerful explosions to appear since the Big Bang.

* Boeing Delta 4 Heavy - The demonstration mission for the Boeing Delta 4 Heavy Launch Vehicle carried a payload for the United States Air Force. It was launched on December 21, 2004. The launch as been delayed from September 23 and December 2003, July 3, September 10, October 20 2004 and November 18, 2004. The Heavy version features three Common Booster Cores mounted together and are powered by the RS-68 rocket engine. This is the largest rocket of the Delta 4 family.

December 2004

 * Ariane 5 ECA - The Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket with the new ESC-A cryogenic upper stage will fly a demonstration test flight in late 2004. In December 11 2002, the first flight of the new Ariane 5-ECA version resulted in a failure.  The Ariane 5 will increase the payload capacity into geostationary orbit from 6 for the standard Ariane 5G (Generic) version to 10 metric tons for the ECA version.

Other Launches in 2005

* Lunar-A - The Japanese lunar penetrator mission mayl be launched in 2004 by the M-V launch vehicle from Kagoshima Space Center (KSC). The mission will study the moon's interior using seismometers and heat-flow probes installed in the penetrators. Two penetrators will be deployed on the lunar surface; one on the nearside, and another on the farside. Please note the correct spelling is Lunar-A and not Luna-A.

• Space Shuttle Books

• Astronomy: 2006 Standard Wall Calendars

• Space Tourism: Adventures in Earth's Orbit and Beyond
  by Michel van Pelt
  from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, eCampus.com

• Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and Beyond
  by Brian Harvey
  from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca

• The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Interplanetary Probes
  by Mark Wolverton
  from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca

• Space Shuttle Model: Includes all types of merchandise including the STS 107 Space Patch.

• Space Shuttle Video and DVD:
  
   - Hail Columbia (IMAX) (1982) from Amazon.com (dvd, vhs) and Amazon.co.uk dvd
  
   - First U.S. Space Shuttle Mission Video (1981) from Amazon.com

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Updated: Saturday 19th, July, 2008