Astronomy and Space 2009

January 2009

 * GOSAT - Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite:

GOSAT (also known as Ibuki) is an Earth observation satellite and the world's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse-gas-monitoring, which will be used to measure densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth's atmosphere. The GOSAT was developed by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

GOSAT was launched along with seven other piggyback probes using the H-IIA, Japan's primary large-scale expendable launch system on January 23, 2009 from Tanegashima, a small island in southern Japan, after a two-day delay due to bad weather.

February 2009

NOAA-19, polar-orbiting satellite was developed by NASA/Goddard Spaceflight Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA-19 will collect information about Earth's atmosphere and environment to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe.

 * OCO: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is a new Earth orbiting mission sponsored by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program. It was launched on 24 February 2009.

March 2009

 * Space Shuttle STS-129:  STS-119 will be the 28th U.S. mission to the International Space Station. The flight will deliver the Starboard 6 truss segment, giving the station its fourth and final set of power-generating solar wings. It was launched on 15 March 2009.

* Kepler: The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. It was launched on 7 March 2009 on a Delta II from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

April 2009

May 2009

 * Last Space Shuttle Mission to Hubble Telescope: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 is the final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and its fifth servicing mission. It is scheduled for launch on May 12, 2009. It was previous launch date was August 28, 2008, September 10, 2008 and October 8, 2008.

 * Shuttle Endeavour – ISS2J/A: STS-127 will be the 29th U.S. mission to the International Space Station. The flight will deliver the external experiment platform for the Japanese science laboratory facilities. It will be launched May 27 2009.

August 2009

 * AsiaSat 5: AsiaSat 5 is a new generation communications satellite designed to offer improved power and coverage to AsiaSat's customers across the Asia Pacific region. It was launched ion 12 August 2009.

November 2009

 * STS 129 Shuttle Atlantis (ISS 17A): Space Shuttle Atlantis is a scheduled mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to be flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-129/ULF3 (ISS Utilization and Logistics Flight - 3) launch date for the mission is targeted for November 16, 2009.

 * Glory Mission: The Glory Mission will help increase our understanding of the Earth's energy balance by collecting data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon in the Earth's atmosphere and how the Sun's irradiance affects the Earth's climate. It maybe launched on 1 March 2009 by Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

 * Phobos Mars Moon Sample Return Mission: The aim of the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission will be to collect soil samples from Phobos, a moon of Mars and to return the samples back to Earth. Development work commenced in 2001. The launch vehicle will probably be a Soyuz LV with a Fregat upper stage and maybe launched on October, 2009. It will be the first Russian interplanetary mission since the failed Mars 96 mission.

 * Yinghuo-1: Yinghuo-1, the first Chinese Mars mission maybe launched piggy-back during the launch of the Russian Phobos-Grunt.

 * LISA Pathfinder: LISA Pathfinder is an ESA space probe to be launched in 2009. It was previously called is the revised name for SMART-2 (SMART stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology). The aim of the LISA Pathfinder is to test technologies needed for the NASA/ESA mission LISA, which will be a gravitational wave detector.

 * Aquarius: Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Salinity (SSS). Scientific progress is limited because conventional in situ SSS sampling is too sparse to give the global view of salinity variability that only a satellite can provide. Aquarius will resolve missing physical processes that link the water cycle, the climate, and the ocean. Its scheduled launch date is 2009.

 * First Launch of Soyuz from Kourou: The medium-lift Soyuz, a member of Arianespace’s expanding launcher family will join its heavy-lift Ariane 5 in operations from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana beginning of 2009.

 FUTURE SPACE MISSIONS

2010

February 2010

 * CryoSat-2   After the launch failure of CryoSat, ESA immediately started to plan a replacement CryoSat mission. CryoSat-2 maybe launched in February 2010.