From Wired with love
The last 12 months have seen everything from a high profile space tourist, a powerful new space telescope, and everyone's favorite cuddly-looking microbes launched into space. Here are this year's tops from Wired magazine.
#5 - Space Tourist Richard Garriott
On number 5 is the space tourist. For just $30 million you too can visit outer space. Texan computer game developer Richard Garriott paid that lofty fee to Russia's Federal Space Agency for a chance to blast off aboard a Soyuz rocket in October.
The son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, the younger Garriott became the first American second-generation space traveler when he took a 10-day vacation to the International Space Station.
#4 - Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle
The biggest European spacecraft ever built, the double-decker bus-sized Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle, launched in March to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
The unmanned cargo ship was the first new spacecraft in nine years to join the ranks of station-bound ships. After it completed its job, however, the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere as planned during a fiery death dive back to Earth.
#3 - IBEX Spacecraft to Study Solar System's Edge
NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) lifted off in October on a mission to study the farthest fringes of the solar system.
Its two bucket-sized sensors are designed to capture particles bouncing back toward Earth from the distant boundary between the hot wind from the sun and the cold wall of interstellar space.
#2 - Tardigrades!
Tardigrades, or "water bears," are microscopic eight-legged critters known to survive extreme temperatures, tons of radiation, and nearly a decade without water on Earth. In September scientists declared they had proven their mettle in one more extreme environment: outer space.
The adorable invertebrates technically launched at the end of last year, but only reached fame recently when they were found to have survived in perfect health upon their return to Earth.
India made its first space mission beyond Earth orbit in October when it launched the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a planned two-year mission to the moon.
The lunar orbiter included a small Moon Impact Probe that landed in November and planted the Indian flag on the lunar surface.
According to space experts, nearly 30% of unmanned moon missions of the US and the former USSR failed while being put into moon’s orbit. Three cheers for Chandrayaan 1!
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