First new-generation TDRS satellite, supporting communications with the International Space Station and military satellites. Released by the Centaur upper stage into a 4336 km x 35,791 km x 25.7 deg orbit. The satellite then used its R-4D engine to reach station in geosynchronous orbit.

Initial issues with thrusters and solar panel deployment were solved, but delayed rendezvous with the ISS by one day. Captured by the ISS SSRMS robot arm at 10:31 GMT on 3 March. Delivered 677 kg of cargo in the pressurized section. Externally, two 119 kg grapple fixtures for the ISS Heat Rejection System were delivered. Undocked and released by the SSRMS at 10:56 GMT on 26 March. Retrofire at 15:42 GMT followed by splashdown in the Pacific at 30.52 deg N / 120.04 deg W at 16:35 GMT.

Second geosynchronous orbit in the Space-Based Infrared System for detecting missile launches and tracking missiles, air vehicles, and certain surface events. The Centaur upper stage placed the satellite in a 182 km x 35804 km x 22.2 deg transfer orbit. SBIR-2 used its own engines to reach its operational geosynchronous orbit.

Docked with the Poisk module of the ISS at 02:28 GMT on 29 March. Soyuz TMA-08M undocked from the ISS and made its deorbit burn at 02:05 GMT. The BO and PAO modules were jettisoned at 02:32 GMT and the SA descent module containing Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy touched down safely in Kazakhstan at 02:58 GMT after 166.3 days in space.

The biosat combined a Vostok spherical pressurized reentry capusle and a Yantar service module. The capsule carried mice, gerbils, geckos, and snails; microorganisms in FRAGMENTER and BIOKONT-B containers; fish and algae in an OMEGAHAB aquarium; plants in FITO plant containers; and some microgravity materials experiments. Landed 82 km north of Orenburg at 03:12 GMT on 19 May. The gerbils had perished due to equipment failure; all of the geckos and half of the mice were alive

First launch of the Antares launch vehicle, combining surplus rocket engines from the Soviet N1 moon rocket program with US-built components. The mass simulator carried instrumentation to measure the launch vehicle environment in preparation for future launches of the Cygnus spacecraft designed to carry cargo to the International Space Station. It also released four cubesats into independent orbits.

Although one of the spacecraft's rendezvous antennae did not deploy, it docked successfully with the aft port of the ISS Zvezda module at 12:25 GMT on 26 April. Undocked from the Zvezda module at 13:58 GMT on 11 June to clear the port for the ATV resupply vehicle. Maneuvered to a 416 km x 456 km orbit for Radar-Progress ionospheric experiments.

Magnetosphere mission. Said to be a very high altitude barium release experiment, but US Department of Defence stated it was a direct-ascent anti-geosynchronous satellite weapon test to an altitude of 30,000 km. Chinese officials stated it was a scientific mission with a payload launched to 10,000 km altitude consisting of a Langmuir probe, particle detectors, a magnetometer, and a barium cloud release.

Fourth GPS Block IIF satellite, 2.5m high satellite with a solar panel span of 18 m. The IIF navigation payloads carry atomic clocks and broadcast L-band navigation signals in the L1M, L2M, L2C and L5 channels; they also carry sensors to detect nuclear explosions as part of an early warning system.

Docked with the Rassvet module of the ISS at 02:10 GMT on 29 May after a 5 hour 39 minute flight. On 1 November 2013 Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano, undocked from the Rassvet module at 08:33 GMT and flew around the station at a distance of 200 m to redock at 08:54 GMT with the Zvezda aft port freed up by ATV-4. Undocked from the Zvezda module on 10 November at 23:26 GMT and landed in Kazakhstan at 02:49 GMT on 11 November.

CIBER near infrared astronomy telescope, sent to its highest ever altitude, to minimize atmospheric emissions contaminating its observations of the cosmic extragalactic background light. The CIBER payload fell in the Atlantic as planned, and was not recovered. CIBER observes in the 0.8-2 micron band.

R&D launch. New-generation Rubezh ('Frontier') missile, most likely impacting the Balkash test range at Sary Shagan. The new missile is suspected to be a derivative of the existing Topol solid fuel series of missiles; earlier launches were in September 2011 and May and October 2012.

Docked with the Tiangong-1 spacelab on June 13 at 05:11 GMT. On June 23 the crew carried out a redocking exercise. They undocked Shenzhou 10 from Tiangong at 00:26 GMT, backed away from the station, and redocked with it at 02:00 GMT. On June 24 the crew undocked for the final time, made a flyaround of the Tiangong station, and then prepared to return to Earth. The deorbit burn was at about 23:23 GMT Jun3 25. The capsule landed in China at 00:07 GMT June 26, at 42.33N 111.36E.

First Kondor satellite, part of a new system of optical and radar military surveillance satellites; payload on this mission reportedly an S-band synthetic apperture radar with a swath width of 10 km and ground resolution of 1 m in spotlight mode, 3 m in stripmap mode, and 5-30 m in ScanSAR mode.

NASA Small Explorer program; the IRIS Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph was designed to obtain high resolution (0.3 arcseconds) high cadence (1 second intervals) imaging and spectra of the sun with its 20-cm telescope, in two far-UV bands (1332-1358A, 1380-1406A) and one near-UV band (2785-2835A). Air dropped in Point Mugu Drop Zone.

Thought to be carrying out observations of space debris. Made a slight orbit adjustment of 1 km on 15 October to a 660 km x 675 km orbit, then released a new object, 2013-037J, with which it maintained stationkeeping within 2 km. The new object was perhaps a target subsatellite, possibly passive, for experiments with proximity operations.

Testbed communications satellite, a joint project between the European Space Agency and Inmarsat. Demonstrated a laser communications system and radio communications links in Q and V band; carried an operational extended L-band payloadto supplement Inmarsat's satellite broadband capacity. First flight of the new Astrium/Lampoldshausen 500N EAM (European Apogee Motor), a MON/MMH system with an Isp of about 325s. Dry mass iaround 3500 kg. By July 30 Alphasat was in a 25608 x 35809 km x 0.3 deg orbit.

Docked with the Pirs module of the ISS 5 hr 41 min after launch. Payload delivered to the station included a 1U cubesat, Chasqui 1 from Peru's Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria. Undocked from the Pirs module of the ISS at 16:21 GMT on 3 February 2014. Deorbited on February 11 following a week of independent operations, with impact in the South Pacifc at 15:55 GMT.

Fourth Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle mission to the ISS. Carried on its external pallet the Space Test Program H4 package to be installed on ELC1 (around 400 kg), a spare Main Bus Switching Unit for ELC2 (100 kg), and a spare SARJ Utility Transfer Assembly for ELC4 (around 300 kg). The pressurized cargo was packaged in 8 HTV Resupply Racks and included the FROST freezer, the Kirobo robot, NASA's RRM Task Board 3 robotics experiment, and two J-SSOD cubesat launchers. The J-SSODs were later taken outside via the Kibo science airlock ejected five cubesats. HTV 4 reached the ISS on 9 Auguest, holding 10 metres off the Station until the Canadarm-2 robot arm captured it at 11:22 GMT. The arm berthed the module on the Harmony node at 15:28 GMT. The hatch to the pressurized cabin of the HTV was opened at 11:11 GMT on 10 August. On 11 August at 21:07 GMT the Canadarm removed the Exposed Pallet (EP) from the HTV, and at 03:59 GMT 12 August the EP was installed on the end of the Kibo Exposed Facility pallet. The equipment on the EP will be relocated to the ELC pallets on the truss using the Japanese and Canadian robot arms. After completing operations, it was unberthed from Harmony at 12:07 GMT on 4 September and released by the Canadarm at 16:20 GMT. After several maneuvers, final retrofire was over Japan at 06:11 GMT on 7 September, with burnup over the South Pacific at around 41 deg S at 06:37 GMT.

Crew exited the Pirs airlock using the Orlan-MK 4 and 5 spacesuits. They retrieved the BLTS-N laser communications experiment, replacing it with the DPN/VRM adjustable mount. The mount was incorrectly assembled, but after a delay it was decided to install it anyway and take out the incorrect orientation by swivelling the DPN articulated arm. An Earth observing camera will be installed on the mount in a future spacewalk. The astronauts also inspected and tightened the remaining WAL antenna covers, obtained samples of the exterior of the Poisk module, and waved the Russian flag to celebrate the country's flag day.

Triplet of naval surveillance satellites, believed to operate like the old US PARCAE/NOSS system, in which a group of loosely formation-flying spacecraft locate radio emitters using the difference in time of arrival of the radio signals at the different satellites.

ABM Target. First Silver Sparrow target missile on a suborbital flight from an F-15 airplane over the Mediterranean Sea. Launched eastward towards the Israeli coast, for tests of Israeli missile defense radars. The flight's detection by Russian tracking systems led to some initial public consternation until the mission was acknowledged by Israel.

NASA Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Enviroment Explorer mission. It carried an ultraviolet spectrometer, a lunar dust experiment, a neutral mass spectrometer, and a laser communications experiment. An Aerojet Rocketdyne/Redmond R-4D-15 HiPAT 455N thruster, with 135 kg of propellant, was used for lunar orbit insertion and orbit maneuvers. After three perigee boost maneuvers it entered lunar gravitational sphere of influence on 6 October at 18:02 GMT. The lunar orbit insertion burn at 10:57 GMT placed LADEE in a 24-hour-period 269 km x 15,772 km selenocentric orbit inclined 157 deg to the lunar equator. Two further burns, the last on 12 October at 10:40 GMT, placed the spacecraft in a 248 km x 251 km orbit. The spacecraft was lowered into an orbit with a 2 km perilune in early April 2014, and it impacted the lunar farside between 04:30 and 05:22 GMT April 18, possibly on the east rim of the crater Sundman V at 12N 93W, north of Mare Orientale.

Spectroscopic Planet Observatory for Recognition of Interaction of Atmosphere; carryied a 0.20-meter silicon carbide mirror with an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer observing in the 550 to 1450 Angstrom range, used to study the exospheres of planets in our solar system. First launch of Japan's Epsilon solid propellant launch vehicle.

First Orbital Sciences Cygnus ISS resupply spacecraft. Named SS G. David Low after the late astronaut, son of the former NASA administrator, and Orbital employee. The Cygnus consisted of a pressurized cargo module (PCM) built by Thales Alenia in Torino, and a service module (SM) built by Orbital/Dulles. The craft carried 700 kg of cargo. Intiial orbit was 261 km x 277 km x 51.6 deg; at 20:07 GMT this was raised to 274 km x 384 km. On 22 September the first attempt at rendezvous with the ISS was cancelled due to a software problem in the GPS navigation system; Cygnus passed ISS at a distance of 4 km at 08:45 GMT. On 29 September Cygnus completed its rendezvous with ISS, reaching a 250 m hold point at 09:08 GMT. The SSRMS arm captured Cygnus at 11:00 GMT, and after berthing to the Harmony module of the ISS he astronauts began unloading the ship's cargo. Cygnus unberthed from Harmony at 10:04 GMT on 22 October and was released into a 415 x 419 km orbit by the SSRMS at 11:31 GMT. On 23 October Cygnus conducted its retrofire burn at 17:41 GMT, and burnt up at 18:16 GMT over the South Pacific.

First launch of China's Kuaizhou small quick-response launch vehicle. "Kuaizhou" means "Swift Boat". The solid propellant vehicle is thought to be built by CASIC in collaboration with the Harbin Institute of Technology and may be a derivative of the DF-21 family, like the failed KT-1 launch vehicle of 2002-2003. Development of the rocket began in 2010. The satellite's initial orbit was 275 x 293 km x 96.7 deg, raised on 27 September to 299 x 306 km. The satellite payload is operated by the State Remote Sensing Center. The satellite maneuvered following launch: its initial 275 x 293 km orbit, was raised on September 27 to 299 x 306 km. The orbit decayed to 279 x 288 km and then was raised on October 17 to 288 x 321 km; after a further decay another reboost on November 1 restored the orbit to 290 x 317 km. The third reboost on November 19 raised the orbit from 267 x 294 km to 287 x 322 km.

Canadian Space Agency satellite with two payloads: the CASCADE high bandwith Ka-band communications relay package and the ePOP suite of instruments to study the polar ionosphere. The satellite was built by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA Ltd.) using a Bristol Aerospace spacecraft bus. First launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 upgrade of the Falcon 9 rocket.

Cornell University satellite; carried a differential GPS navigation system and pulsed plasma thrusters. The defunct-before-launch CUSAT 2/Top satellite remained attached to the Falcon 9 second stage. CUSAT (formerly CUSAT 1/Bottom) was launched attached to CUSAT 2 and separated from it after orbit insertion.

Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer from the University of Colorado. The sphere carried a particle spectrometer to measure the outer atmosphere wind speed and direction, and a drag measurement system. It was attached to an 8 kg Lightband adapter which was jettisoned on October 30 (cataloged as 2013-055AC) and DANDE then began its atmospheric density studies.

Flew an experimental reentry vehicle on a Topol launch from Kapustin Yar to the Balkash range at Sary Shagan on; the launch was observed by Mike Hopkins on board the ISS, orbiting several thousand km to the southeast. Ejecta in an upper stage rocket plume of some kind were illuminated by the Sun making an easily visible cloud.

Launched from a sub in the Barents Sea to Kura. One of a series of missiles launched on the same day as part of a large scale Russian military exercise. One Iskander-M and three Tochka-U short range missiles were also launched from Kapustin Yar to unknown targets

First Indian mission to Mars. Carried 15 kg of instruments, including a color camera, but primary purpose was to test technologies for future planetary missions. Carried 850 kg of propellant for trans-Mars ejection and insertion into Martian orbit on arrival there. The MOS was inserted in elliptical Earth orbit; it used its own propulsion to achieve trans-Mars injection. The fourth stage and MOM payload entered a 251 x 23,892 km x 19.4 deg orbit with first perigee over the South Pacific. On November 7 the orbit was raised to 259 x 28,726 km, and on November 8 to over 70,000 km apogee. A further burn on November 10 delivered only 35 m/s, raising the apogee less than planned. A makeup burn on November 11 fixed the problem, and a burn on November 15 put the spacecraft in a 853 x 194,683 km x 19.4 deg orbit. A final perigee burn at 19:19 GMT on November 30 accelerated MOM to a hyperbolic Earth escape trajectory, and it entered an 0.98 x 1.45 AU solar orbit on December 3 on the way to Mars.

The crew exited the station via the Pirs module. They carried an Olympic torch for a publicity event. The Yakor platform was removed from Zvezda's transfer compartment but could not be attached to the VRM/URM-D articulating mount on side IV of the main part of Zvezda, and was brought inside instead. A piece of equipment called DPN was be removed from the VRM (it was installed on the EVA in August 2013). The RK-21-8 Radiometria experiment installed on 2011 Feb 16 on another URM-D experiment mount on side II of Zvezda was disconnected, but the astronauts had trouble stowing its deployed panels.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN orbiter designed to study the escape of gases from the upper Martian atmosphere. It carried particles and fields instruments and an imaging ultraviolet spectrometer. MAVEN reached a 167 x 315 km x 26.7 deg parking orbit at 18:41 GMT; the Centaur AV-038 stage restarted at 19:09 GMT and inserted MAVEN into a trans-Mars trajectory. MAVEN and the Centaur left the Earth-Moon system on November 21 in a 0.97 x 1.47 AU x 2.1 deg heliocentric orbit which will take them to Mars in September 2014.

On 19 November a J-SSOD cubesat deployer was retrieved from the Kibo module airlock by the JEM RMS arm and moved to a deployment position; at 12:18 GMT it ejected three 1U cubesats, including two Ardusats for a demonstration of spaceborne Arduino processors for the US company NanoSatisfi.

On 19 November a J-SSOD cubesat deployer was retrieved from the Kibo module airlock by the JEM RMS arm and moved to a deployment position; at 12:18 GMT it ejected three 1U cubesats, including two Ardusats for a demonstration of spaceborne Arduino processors for the US company NanoSatisfi.

Carried technology and space weather experiments, including a Total Solar Irradiance sensor, TCTE, to provide data lost when the Glory launch failed. Also on the launch vehicle were two CubeStack wafers which eject a record total of 28 cubesats. The upper wafer carried four 6U Cubesat dispensers for NRO missions, and the lower wafer carried eight 3U P-POD cubesat dispensers for various payloads including NASA's ELANA IV cubesat cluster.

On 19 November a J-SSOD cubesat deployer was retrieved from the Kibo module airlock by the JEM RMS arm and moved to a deployment position. On 20 November it released this 3U cubesat from NASA-Ames and San Jose State University, which deployed an 0.6m `Exobrake' sail to test a way to increase the cubesat's drag and make it reenter quickly.

Communications satellites for SpaceQuest; part of a constellation of small LEO satellites for global fixed and mobile asset tracking. Also carried an AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver monitor naval vessel locations. Dnepr rocket launched from an ICBM silo at Yasniy in Russia placed a cluster of 24 satellites in orbit on on a single launch. Although this was fewer than the ORS-3 launch the day before, if nanosats ejected later are counted, the single launch put 33 payloads in orbit.

Technology satellite for the University of Rome. It carried a further eight tiny satellites within it, and one of those (PUCP-Sat) carried a further nested satellite, Pocket-PUCP. Most of the subsatellites were ejected from Unisat-5 between 08:10 and 08:25 GMT on November 21.

Satellite built by KAIST of South Korea, with the MIRIS infrared astronomy experiment (an 8 cm telescope operating at 0.9-2 microns with a 4 degree field of view for spectroscopy of diffuse extended emission), as well as earth imaging and technology payloads.

A follow-up to CHAMP spacecraft, the Swarm was three satellites in three different polar orbits to measure the earth's magnetic field with high precision. Each spacecraft carried an Absolute Scalar Magnetometer; a Vector Field Magnetometer; an Electric Field Instrument; an Accelerometer; and a Laser Range Reflector.

It made a 1.5 km flyby of ISS at 21:50 GMT on November 27 to test the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system, and then a re-rendezvous on November 29. A glitch forced a switch to manual TORU control for the last 60 m to docking with the Zvezda module at 22:30 GMT. Undocked from Zvezda on June 9 at 13:30 GMT and was deorbited the same day, with debris falling in the South Pacific around 17:23 GMT.

Unmanned lunar rover. Boosted into a 210 x 389 109 km x 28.5 deg lunar transfer orbit. On December 6 at 09:50 GMT the spacecraft entered a 100 km polar orbit around the Moon. The 3,800 kg wet / 1,200 kg at landing spacecraft had a descent engine and landing legs, and a variety of lunar surface science experiments. It also carried Yutu, a small 140 kg rover. On December 10 at 13:20 GMT the orbit was lowered from 100 x 100 to 15 x 100 km. At 12:59:52 GMT December 14, near perilune, the descent engine was turned on to decelerate the probe and fly it down to the surface. Chang'e-3 touched down at 13:11:18 GMT, at 19.51W 44.12N, about 43 km south of crater Laplace F in the Mare Imbrium. This was the first lunar soft landing since the USSR's Luna-24 in 1976.

Lunar rover delivered to lunar surface by Chang'e-3. At 20:35 GMT on December 14 the `Yutu hao' (`rabbit') rover drove down the Chang'e-3 ramp onto the lunar surface. Yutu and Chang'e-3 are both solar powered, but also carry small Pu-238 radioactive heater units to keep systems from freezing during the 14-day lunar night. Yutu had six wheels.

Communications satellite for SES World Skies. First geostationary launch for Falcon 9 launch vehicle. After reaching parking orbit the second stage reignited at 2308 GMT and placed SES-8 in a 423 x 79,977 km x 20.47 deg supersynchronous transfer orbit. SES-8 used its engine to move into its final geosynchronous orbit.

1.5U cubesat from the Montana Space Grant Consortium to study electron microbursts in the magnetosphere. The Centaur AV-042 upper stage, after deploying the main payload, made two orbit lowering burns to a 467 x 883 km x 120.5 deg orbit. Attached to AV-042 was GEMSAT, the second NPSCuL cubesat launcher, which ejected 12 cubesats between around 10:22 and 10:38 GMT.

A problem developed with the 354 kg Pump Module on ETCS Loop A, one of the Station's two cooling loops. With only loop B operating, various ISS systems had to be shut down to reduce the amount of heat being generated. A series of spacewalks was needed to replace the module. The failed Pump Module was serial number S/N 04 (PM-1), which was launched on STS-121 in 2006 and stored on External Stowage Platform 2 until Aug 2010, when it was installed in the S1 truss to replace another Pump Module, S/N 02, which had failed after 8 years in space. The P1 truss hosts the Loop B PM (unknown serial number) which has been operating since 2002. There are three further spares on ISS, stored on ESP-3, ELC-2, and ELC-1.

Eighth in Kavoshgar series of biology missions; Capsule D recovery test. Launched from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in Semnan province on a 120 km suborbital flight, carrying a 3 kg, 3 year old rhesus monkey named Fargam. This was the fourth Iranian monkey in space, and the second to return successfully following the Kavoshgar Pisgham ('Pioneer Probe') mission in January 2013. The use of a liquid fuel missile provided gentler acceleration than the small solid propellant sounding rockets used for earlier experiments. The Kavoshgar Pazhuhesh ('Research Probe') flight was the first 'Class D' mission of the Kavoshgar series. The payload was developed by the Institute of Astronautical Systems, which I believe is part of the Aerospace Research Institute in Tehran.

European Space Agency Gaia spacecraft to measure the three-dimensional positions and velocities of galactic stars, placed in Lagrangian Point 2. As Gaia rotated, a gigapixel detector array consisting of a complex arrangement of mirrors, CCD's, and photometers measured stellar positions, brightness and color; and Doppler shifts of stars with unprecedented accuracy. The Gaia catalog, when it is available in the 2020's, was expected to put the whole field of astrophysics on a firmer footing. Soyuz ST-B with upper stage Fregat-MT No. 1039 from Kourou-Sinnamary. The Fregat upper stage separated from the Soyuz booster at suborbital velocity. It then made a first burn to a 175 x 175 km parking orbit, then reignited for a 16-minute burn from 09:33 GMT to propel Gaia to a 344 km x 962,690 km x 15.0 deg orbit, on its way to the Sun-Earth L2 point. Gaia fired its own propulsion system of 6 10-N thrusters to raise apogee to around 1.5 million km towards midnight; after a few weeks it entered a Lissajous orbit around the L2 point and began observations. Gaia's data will take years to process and was to result in the best yet catalog of galactic stars.

Bolivia's first communications satellite, named after the historical Bolivian leader Julian Apasa Nina (Tupac Katari, 1750-1781). The satellite was built by China's CAST using a DFH-4 bus. It was controlled by Chinese-trained Bolivian engineers at the Amachuma ground station.

Second spacewalk to repair the failed Loop A thermal control system.The astronauts went to External Stowage Platform 3 and removed spare Pump Module serial number 0006. The SSRMS robot arm moved Hopkins and the PM to the S1 truss; it was installed at 14:56 GMt and bolted in place at 15:08 GMT. The astronauts then connected ammonia fluid lines and electrical cables. One ammonia line initially refused to disconnect from its previous location and then did spill some NH3 flakes in the vicinity of the spacewalkers, requiring some decontamination precautions on return to the airlock.

AM-5 used a Reshetnev Ekspress-2000 bus with C, Ku, Ka and L-band communications payloads developed in collaboration with the Canadian company MDA. The Briz-M made four burns to deliver Ekspress AM-5 to a sub-geostationary orbit of around 33,800 x 37,800 km x 0.18 deg. It used its on-board electric propulsion system (ion drive) to complete the trek to GEO.

The crew installed two video cameras from the Vancouver-based company UrtheCast. After struggling with the cabling on the medium resolution camera, the astronauts jettisoned the UrtheCast MRC cable reel and an obsolete space science experiment, Vsplesk. The new Seismoprognoz experiment launched on Progress M-21M was installed on Zvezda to replace Vsplesk. It was then reported that the UrtheCast cameras were not working correctly, and the astronauts were ordered to dismount them and bring them back inside.