Notable Space Setbacks and Mishaps Highlight a Tumultuous Year
Despite remarkable achievements in space exploration, 2019 experiences significant high-profile failures ranging from corporate bankruptcies to unexpected lunar crashes.
The year 2019 brings incredible achievements to space exploration, but it also delivers several major setbacks. For every successful lunar landing or asteroid sample retrieval, there is an equally significant failure that frustrates scientists and investors alike.
The most notable failure occurs when the ambitious Mars One project officially declares bankruptcy in January. The Dutch organization raises tens of millions of dollars from hopeful investors for a one-way human colonization mission to Mars, but the plan ultimately reveals itself as a severely underfunded and unrealistic dream that lacks any actual spaceflight architecture.
Another prominent setback happens in April when the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crash-lands on the moon. The private mission, initially backed by the Google Lunar X Prize, narrowly misses a successful landing and subsequently sparks a bizarre controversy over a secret payload of microscopic tardigrades that potentially survive the violent impact.