Last robotic mission to an unexplored planet in our solar system. New Horizons was due to receive a gravity boost from Jupiter in February 2007, then fly by Pluto in 2015. During launch toward Jupiter it reached a higher velocity than any manmade object, and was the first to be boosted directly to solar escape velocity. The trajectory had a perihelion of 0.98 AU, an inclination of 0.87 deg and an eccentricity of 1.03. After the Jupiter encounter it was to have a perihelion of 2.2 AU, an inclination of 2.3 deg and an eccentricity of 1.40. At encounter with Pluto on July 14, 2015, the spacecraft would be 1.1 AU above the ecliptic plane and 32.9 AU from the Sun, leaving the solar system toward the star Xi Sgr.

Wearing Orlan suits, the crew emerged from the Pirs airlock of the station and first released a surplus Orlan suit with its radio transmitter activated, dubbed SuitSat. SuitSat broadcast greetings in six languages to radio amateurs for two orbits before its batteries failed. The crew then moved to the Zarya module and relocated the Strela crane grapple fixture to the Unity module. This cleared Zarya for the future temporary stowage of debris shields. The crew moved on to the station's center truss, where they safed a cutting mechanism on one of two umbilicals to the Mobile Transporter rail car. Returning to Pirs, they retrieved a microorganism experiment and photographed the exterior of Zvezda.

Multifunctional Transport Satellite. An aeronautical payload provided communications relay between aircraft and air traffic control; GPS augmentation navigation for aircraft; and transmitted the location of aircraft to air traffic control. A Japan Advanced Meteorological Imager weather camera had one visible and four infrared channels. MTSAT-2 was built by Mitsubishi using the new DS2000 bus. As of 2007 Mar 8 located at 144.93E drifting at 0.016W degrees per day.

At 21:12 GMT the MRO's six MR-107N engines, each with a thrust of 170 N, ignited and braked the spacecraft into a 279 km x 44,500 km x 93.3 deg capture orbit. The spacecraft then began several months of aerobraking to lower its apogee and attain its operational orbit for imaging of the surface.

Space Technology 5 was one of NASA's New Millenium Program projects. It consisted of three small spacecraft, each a half meter in each dimension, with a small extensible magnetometer boom. Study of the magnetosphere was however secondary to the Nanosat Constellation Trailblazer technology mission. This was to demonstrate fully functional nanosatellites, which included a cold gas microthruster and miniaturized telemetry/command and power systems. The Pegasus rocket was dropped from the L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific at 123 deg W x 36 deg N. Air dropped in Point Arguello WADZ.

The 100-kg test British-design scramjet engine was boosted to an altitude of 314 km during a 10-minute flight. It and the attached second stage then were re-oriented to point back to the Earth. The scramjet was successfully ignited at a speed of Mach 8 in the tiny six-second window of opportunity shortly before impact.

Soyuz TMA-8 docked with the Zarya nadir port of the ISS at 04:19 GMT on April 1. It undocked from Zarya on 28 September at 21:53 GMT, with the return crew of Vinogradov, Williams and space tourist Ansari aboard. It landed in Kazakhstan at 01:13 GMT on 29 September.

A repeat of the test four days earlier, this time with a Japanese-designed scramjet. The nosecone of the rocket failed to jettison and therefore scramjet ignition was not achieved. The scramjet and second stage remains were located in the desert and recovered after only 20 minutes of searching.

The 53-minute orbit insertion burn begain at 07:10 GMT and left VEx the spacecraft in a highly elliptical polar orbit around Venus with an apoapsis of 350,000 km. A series of further engine burns would place the satellite in a 257 x 70,463 km orbit by 23 April..

A two-stage SR19 rocket was flown from the Kaui Test Facility in the Pacific Missile Range Facility. The payload included the deployment of complex countermeasures, a mock reentry vehicle, an onboard sensor package. This series of radar certification flight was initially part of the Block 2004 effort.

FORMOSAT-3 consisted of six small 62 kg Orbcomm-type satellites with GPS receivers which were to measure atmospheric conditions by studying the effect of the atmosphere on GPS satellite signals passing through it. The satellites, also known as COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate), each raised their orbits over several months, all but one reaching operational orbits of around 770 x 840 km by September 2007.

The first Centaur upper stage burn placed the stack into a 167 km x 22442 km x 24.8 deg transfer orbit. After a second burn the Centaur released the satellite into a 6470 km x 36240 km x 23.8 deg orbit, from which it would use its own engine to achieve final geosynchronous orbit. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 19.18E drifting at 0.022W degrees per day.

This countermeasures test was a repeat of the one held on April 13, 2006. MDA tested its radars in the Pacific Missile Test Facility in Hawaii against a target missile that carried countermeasures, a mock warhead, and an onboard sensor package. No interceptor missiles were used.

Suborbital microgravity mission. Kaiser-Threde developed a new payload service system for MAXUS 7, providing 2 independent TV-links with 2 high power HF transmitters and GPS. The recovery system was a BAL ORSA system, modified by Kaiser-Threde, including parachute from DLR.

GOES-13 carried weather imager and sounder instruments, a space environment monitor, and a soft X-ray solar imaging telescope. Mass was 1543 kg empty. It joined GOES 10 (operating as GOES-WEST), GOES 12 (operating as GOES-EAST) and GOES 11 (on standby, set to replace GOES-10 on June 27). As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 105.26W drifting at 0.008W degrees per day.

Complex Orbital Magneto-Plasma Autonomous Small Satellite. Earthquake research satellite for the Moscow-based IZMIRAN science institute. The satellite carried detectors for electrons, UHF/VHF waves, UV emission and radiation, a radio frequency analyser for electric field waves, and a Mayak ionospheric beacon. Reports indicated that the satellite did not respond to ground commands and that its mission was abandoned.

The Expedition 13 crew wore Russian Orlan suits and exited the station through the Pirs module hatch, which was opened at 22:48 GMT. On the Zvezda module, the crew installed a vent valve for the Elektron oxygen system, cleared an obstruction on the WAL-2 antenna, and retrieved the Kromka and Biorisk experiments. On the station truss, they replaced a camera on the Mobile Base System.

Civilian remote sensing satellite with a one-meter-resolution-class Geoton-1 camera payload.that relayed its data to the ground via a digital link. It was based on the Terilen/Neman class military reconnaissance satellite in use since the 1980s, using the Yantar satellite bus.

The Microsatellite Technology Experiment was a classified mission, believed to be a test of prototype inspect-and-disable satellites that would control the constellation of geostationary satellites on which the world depends for television reception and communications. Each microsatellite, one built by Orbital Sciences, and the other by Lockheed Martin, had a mass of about 250 kg. They were believed to be solar-powered and equipped with propulsion systems that would allow them to rendezvous with geosynchronous satellites. Once they had reached the satellite, they would presumably be capable of destroying, disabling, or jamming them. To deliver the two satellites to near-synchronous orbit, a Naval Research Laboratory liquid propellant bus equipped with a 400 N main engine and solar panels was used.

Secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The intended orbit was thought to be a "Molniya" elliptical 12-hour orbit with an inclination of 63 degrees. American data relay and signals intelligence satellites have used this orbit in the past, notably the Jumpseat series of 1971-1983. A secondary payload was later confirmed to be the first SBIRS-HEO (Space-based Infrared System) sensor. SBIRS was the successor to the DSP (Defence Support Program), which provided early warning of missile launches. Also carried the NASA/Los Alamos TWINS-A magnetospheric research payload

The shuttle was launched using external tank ET-119 and solid motors RSRM-93. Cameras revealed that large chunks of foam were still shed from the external tank during the ascent to orbit. However examination of the heat shield using a new extension and sensors attached to the shuttle's robot arm revealed no significant damage. Discovery docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the Destiny module of the ISS at 14:52 GMT on 6 July. On July 7 the Leonardo cargo module was moved from the shuttle payload bay by the robot arm and docked to the Unity Module of the ISS between 09:42 and 11:50 GMT. The crew then began unloading the spare parts and supplies in the module to the station. A series of three EVAs conducted on 8 to 12 July tested the new equipment and techniques for repairing the shuttle heat shield in case of damage, and did some preliminary installations on the exterior of the ISS to pave the way for continued station assembly missions. On 14 July, the station's SSRMS robot moved the Leonardo module from the station back to the shuttle cargo bay between 13:08 and 14:50 GMT. The shuttle separated from the ISS, and fired its engines at 12:07 GMT on 17 July to make a 92 m/s deorbit maneuver. Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center at 13:14 GMT. European astronaut Reiter was left behind to make up part of the EO-13 resident crew on the station.

The crew exited the station from the Quest airlock wearing American suits. They installed a replacement Floating Potential Measurement Unit and two long-duration materials exposure MISSE containers. The crew then moved to the S1 truss, where Williams conducted several assembly and repair tasks on the right side of the truss, while Reiter did the same on the left. Then they worked together to install a new infrared camera that would scan arriving shuttles for damage to their heat shields. After completing further minor repairs, they were ahead of the timeline, so ground contorl passed up additonal tasks in preparation for future assembly spacewalks.

Submarine K-84 Ekaterinburg launched the missile while surfaced in the ice pack from a polar location toward the Chizha impact zone on the Kanin Peninsula. The three warheads were reported to have successfuly reached their targets. This was the first Russian launch from the icepack since 29 August 1995.

Atlantis docked with the International Space Station at the PMA-2 port at 10:48 GMT on 11 September. At the Shuttle RMS robot arm connected to the enormous P3/P4 truss in the payload pay and handed it off to the Station's robot arm between 14:52 and 15:03 GMT the same day. The station arm then connected to the P3/P4 truss to the station's P1 truss at 07:27 on 12 September. Three EVA's were made by the shuttle crew over the next three days to complete installation of the truss and deply its solar panels. The Shuttle undocked from the station at 12:50 GMT on 20 September. There was a one-day delay in landing due to weather at the Cape and some concern about several small objects seen floating near the spacecraft. These were believed to be plastic shims that had worked loose from between the tiles and were not a concern. Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center at 10:21 GMT on 21 September.

Military communications satellite, launched to replace Zhongxing 22 in geosynchronous orbit at 98.0 E. Part of the Feng Huo series for secure digital data and voice tactical military communications. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 98.10E drifting at 0.006W degrees per day.

Carried the Expedition 14 crew and space tourist Anousheh Ansari to the International Space Station. Ansari replaced tourist Daisuke Enomoto, who was removed from flight status by the Russians just 28 days before the flight. Docked at the Zvezda port of the station at 05:21 GMT on September 20. On 21 April 2007, Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin and space tourist Charles Simonyi (who was taken to the station aboard Soyuz TMA-10) boarded Soyuz TMA-9, separated from the ISS, conducted retrofire, and landed in Kazakhstan at 12:31 GMT.

After six months aboard the International Space Station that included arrival of two space shuttle missions, resumption of construction of the orbiting laboratory and the restoration of a three-member crew, Expedition 13 landed at 9:13 p.m. EDT in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Additional Details: here....

European polar weather satellite equipped with high-resolution visible and infrared cameras, a microwave sounder, ozone monitors, a GPS atmospheric sounding device, a wind scatterometer, and a search and rescue package. First launch of the Soyuz 2 version of the venerable Soyuz launch vehicle. The main change in this first version of the new booster was a digital control system. Problems with this system delayed the launch repeatedly.

The Progress docked with the Zvezda module of the ISS at 14:29 GMT on October 26. There were indications that the Kurs rendezvous antenna on the forward docking ring had not retracted correctly, but this proved not to be the case. Hard dock was commanded at 18:06 GMT. Progress M-58 undocked from the Zvezda module on 27 March 2007 at 18:11 GMT and was deorbited at 22:44 GMT.

The booster was used to put the twin spacecraft in a 182 km x 403,810 km x 28.5 deg lunar transfer orbit. They would use a series of lunar flybys to eventually place themselves in two different solar orbits: Stereo Ahead in a 0.95 AU x 0.97 AU x 0.12 Deg / 344 day orbit around the Sun leading the Earth, and Stereo Behind in a 0.99 AU x 1.09 AU x 0.03 deg / 389 day orbit trailing the Earth. The satellites were equipped with optical, ultraviolet, radio, and particle sensors that would allow them to form a three-dimensional image of the sun's corona using identical sensors from two vantage points at the same moment.

Communications with the STEREO-B science craft in solar orbit had been lost on 2014 Oct 1 for unknown reasons; by 2016 it was assumed the mission had been lost, but on Aug 21 the big DSS-14 dish at Goldstone picked up a signal from it. This was great news for the heliophysics community, but attempts to recover full communications with the tumbling and underpowered spacecraft have met with mixed success, and as of Oct 11 recovery attempts were scaled back until STEREO-B drifts into a more favorable attitude and orbital position.

First DH-4 heavy Chinese communication satellite with communications equipment provided by Alcatel Alenia. Mission failed when solar panels and antennae failed to deploy in geosynchronous orbit. This was a blow to China's prestige, since the satellite was an important part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics coverage plans. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 91.80E drifting at 0.093W degrees per day.

Iran's president tours new space launch facilities and a rocket is launched, the first in the Kavoshgar series of biology missions. Announced in February 2008; however the project web site indicates Aban 1385, which corresponds to between 2006 October 22 to November 20.

The Iranians fired at least one Shahab-3 and "dozens of" Shahab-2, Zolfaghar-73, Scud B, Fath-110 and Zelzal missiles in a mass firing demonstration to kick off their Great Prophet 2 military exercise. It marked the first firing of the Shahab 3 by troops on exercise as opposed to a test flight. The Shahab 2 was reported to have demonstrated a 1,400-bomblet cluster bomb warhead.

The last signal from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter is received after ten years of service. The spacecraft had shown a few glitches in the day before, and was believed to have encountered some kind of solar panel control or software problem that took it off-line after a pass behind Mars relative to the earth.

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite with the Operational Linescan System camera, a microwave imager-sounder, ultraviolet spectrometers, particle detectors, a magnetometer, and a laser threat warning sensor. Reportedly went for a time into safe mode due to software problems after launch. The booster upper stage was conducted a maneuver to deorbit itself after placing the satellite in orbit. After the burn an explosion evidently occurred aboard the stage - dozens of objects were tracked in various orbits with perigees down to 670 km and apogees up to 851 km.

The test vehicle, dubbed Goddard, lifted off and landed vertically, and reached 90 m altitude. The launch, delayed twice for winds, came at the end of a three-day FAA-approved window. Video and pictures issued indicated that the test vehicle was a subscale (about 84%) version of the final manned vehicle; and that it used a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant rocket engines in place of the hydrogen peroxide/kerosene engines planned for the production vehicle.

The crew exited into space from the Pirs airlock wearing Orlan suits. Tyurin hit a golf ball away from the station in a paid exhibition. Attempts to free a jammed docking antenna on Progress M-58 failed. They relocated a docking antenna on the Zvezda module which would be used in future dockings of the ATV logistics spacecraft. Before reentering the station they installed a neutron flux experiment on Zvezda.

Fourth Wind and Cloud 2 geostationary weather satellite with an infrared radiometer as its primary instrument. The booster placed the spacecraft in a 226 x 36221 km x 24.9 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit. The FG-36 solid apogee motor aboard the satellite burned at 18:07 GMT and placed the FY-2D into an initial 35786 x 36478 km x 2.6 deg geosynchronous drift orbit.

Broadband internet satellite, using the Ka-band satellite. Dry mass 2000 kg. At separation of the Ariane core the stack was in a -1282 km x 233 km x 6.9 deg suborbital trajectory. The ESC-A upper stage fired to put the satellites in a geostationary transfer orbit of 265 km x 35700 km x 2.0 deg. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 111.14W drifting at 0.004W degrees per day.

The mission used solid rocket booster pair RSRM-95 and external tank ET-123. At SSME burnout Discovery was in a 58 km x 220 km x 51.6 deg preliminary burn. The OMS-2 burn at 02:25 GMT placed the shuttle in a stable 225 x 250 km orbit from which rendezvous maneuvers began. Discovery docked with the ISS at 22:12 GMT on December 11. In the most demanding ISS assembly mission ever, the crew would require an additional spacewalk to complete installation of the P5 truss, retraction of the recalcitrant port P6 solar array wing, and activation of the truss electrical and cooling system. Sunita Williams rode the shuttle to the station, and remained behind with the EO-14 crew; ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, already aboard the station, was returned to earth. Due to weather problems a landing at White Sands was considered; but in the end Discovery landed safely at Kennedy Space Center, after which it was to enter a year-long overhaul cycle.

Malaysian communications satellite, to be stationed at 91.5° East together with Measat 1, covering South Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia, and supplementing Measats 1 and 2 launched ten years earlier. The Proton booster released the satellite in a 416 x 35807 x 49.1 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Boeing 601HP 3 axis stabilized spacecraft, had a design lifetime of 15 years. C-band 24 active transponders using 65-watt TWTAs; Ku-band 24 active transponders using 120-watt TWTAs . End of life power of 9.8 kW provided by two solar wings, each with 4 panels of triple-junction gallium arsenide solar cells. A 445N liquid apogee motor circularised the spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, and 12 x 10 N bipropellant thrusters provided stabilization and stationkeeping. Length in orbit with solar panels deployed 26.2 m; width, with antennas deployed, 7.7 m; stowed diameter 3.8 m. Mass in geostationary orbit after apogee motor maneuver at beginning of life 3220 kg. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 91.49E drifting at 0.012W degrees per day.

Classifed NRO mission of uncertain objectives, possibly military observation with a mixed payload. Later it was revealed the on-board propulsion system had completely failed, putting the satellite in a rapidly-decaying orbit. The Pentagon said that the hydrazine propellant aboard consituted a risk and announced they would shoot the satellite down. The real objective may have been to demonstrate US antisatellite capability after a Chinese test in 2007. In any case, on 21 February 2008 the satellite was down to a 242 km x 257 km orbit. At 03:26 GMT an SM-3 missile was fired from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie stationed west of Hawaii to intercept the satellite. The hit-to-kill warhead successfully rammed the satellite, breaking it up into 153 catalogued items of debris with perigees of 170-250 km and apogees of up to 2700 km.

Engineering Test Satellite-8 was a Japanese prototype/operational demonstration for a number of new technologies: a large satellite bus, large-scale deployable 40-m-span antennae, mobile satellite communications system, mobile satellite digital multimedia broadcasting, and basic positioning using high-accuracy time standard devices. It will be positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 146 degrees East. JAXA developed two portable terrestrial systems to communicate directly with the satellite - a tiny telephone and a portable laptop computer. The satellite was to have a lifetime of ten years. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 145.97E drifting at 0.010W degrees per day.

Tacsat-2 was a prototype rapid development/rapid deployment tactical military satellite that provided American Joint Task Force commanders direct control of a satellite providing both SIGINT and imagery with a resolution of better than 1-m. The known communications payload used an 8 GHz (X-band) downlink. This was the first orbital launch from Wallops Island since 1985. TacSat-2 was to have been launched by a Falcon-1 from Vandenberg into a sun-synchronous orbit. However, the failure of Falcon-1 on its long-delayed maiden in March 2006 caused AFRL to award a new launch contract for TacSat-2 and TacSat-3 to OSC in May 2006. The launch was achieved using OSC's Minotaur launch vehicle only seven months after contract award.

3U cubesat launched as a secondary payload. A collaboration of NASA, industry, and local universities resulted in this fully-automated, miniaturized spaceflight system that provided life support, nutrient delivery, and performed assays to monitor genetic changes of E. coli bacteria in space conditions.

Launch rescheduled twice due to Soyuz 2 software problems. The Meridian satellite was designed to provide communication between vessels and airplanes involved in ice surveillance in the North Sea area, and coastal stations on the ground, as well as to expand a network of satellite communications in the northern regions of Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Three Glonass satellites are lofted in a single launch in support of restoring the Glonass navigation satellite constellation to full military and commercial functionality. They were placed in Glonass orbit plane 2, beginning its population. At the time of launch the constellation consisted of 11 operational spacecraft, and five more on-orbit spares. A fully operational constellation would consist of 24 satellites - eight in each of three orbital planes. Only two planes were populated by 2006 - the full complement of 24 satellites was not to be reached until 2009. This was the first launch to repopulate plane 2; planes 1 and 3 had satellites operational.

European COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits satellite, designed to detect transits of planets down to earth size as they pass in front of their stars, and convection currents on stellar surfaces. The satellite was to use its 27-cm-diameter telescope to scan 120,000 stars during its 30-month mission. This was the first flight of the Soyuz-2 booster with the improved RD-0124 third stage engine.