A chronicle of 2024’s space mishaps

Space exploration is no easy task, and when things don’t go as planned, the consequences can be serious. This became quite clear in 2024, a year full of challenges for humanity’s efforts to venture into the unknown. In this lighthearted look back, we’ll reflect on some of the less successful—and often surprising—moments in our quest to explore the final frontier.

From lunar landers touching down in every possible way except the correct one, to cancelled missions, soaring costs, and yet another reminder that it’s never aliens (nope, still not aliens!), here’s a look at 2024’s space-related blunders in all their not-so-glorious moments.

1. Florida Man’s Home Struck by Falling ISS Debris

Earth’s orbit is filled with space junk, and some of it is intentionally released from the International Space Station (ISS), with the idea that it will burn up when it re-enters the atmosphere. However, in April, a surprising incident showed that some of this debris can be tougher than expected, according to Popular Science.

Alejandro Otero from Naples, Florida, got a shock when part of a cargo pallet from the ISS crashed through his roof. “There was a loud noise,” he told WINK news, “and it almost hit my son.”

2. SLIM Touches Down Upside Down

Space exploration in 2024 had its share of tricky landings. In January, Japan’s SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) moon lander started things off by landing upside down.

SLIM made Japan the fifth country to land on the moon and successfully deployed two rovers. However, its bumpy landing left its solar panels out of position, unable to face the sun properly.

Despite the rough landing, SLIM proved tougher than expected. In early February, it was powered off for the 14-day lunar night, which it wasn’t expected to survive.

But SLIM not only survived—it kept going through several more harsh 14-day lunar nights, lasting much longer than anyone thought it would.

3. Odysseus Topples Over

In 2024, SLIM wasn’t the only moon lander that faced challenges with landing. Back in February, a lander called IM-1, built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and nicknamed “Odie” (short for Odysseus), made history. It became the first privately funded spacecraft to successfully reach the moon’s surface.

It was also the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since 1972. However, the landing wasn’t perfect—one of its six legs broke off as it slid across the lunar surface after touchdown.

This left Odie resting on its side in an awkward position, which made it harder to send much data back to Earth.

The spacecraft was turned off a week later when the lunar night started, and after that, no contact could be made with it again.

4. Peregrine Fails to Land

The Peregrine lunar lander was designed by Astrobotic Technology, a private space company from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, unlike SLIM and Odie, which successfully reached the Moon, Peregrine fell short of its goal. It had hoped to make history as the first privately built spacecraft to land on the Moon in early February but was unable to do so.

Unfortunately, the Peregrine lander faced problems right after launch. Just hours after it took off in January, it suffered a major fuel loss. This issue forced the mission to be canceled the next day.

5. VIPER Never Even Gets Off the Ground

One of the biggest letdowns in 2024’s Moon missions came in July, when NASA announced it was canceling the VIPER project.

The mission was planned to search for water in the Moon’s polar regions and was originally supposed to land on the Moon in 2022.

The mission’s goal was to search for water in the Moon’s polar regions and was initially planned to land on the Moon in 2022.  

However, repeated issues with the lander carrying the VIPER rover—developed by Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic, which also created the Peregrine lander—caused several delays. These delays were one of the main reasons NASA decided to cancel the mission.

NASA has promised that some of VIPER’s tools and instruments will be used in future missions.

6. NASA Needs Three Months to Open a Container

One NASA mission that went smoothly was Osiris-REx’s meeting with asteroid Bennu in 2020.

The spacecraft successfully reached the asteroid and collected soil and rock samples. It brought them back to Earth in a sealed container, which arrived safely in September 2023.

The only issue? The container was sealed so tightly that NASA’s scientists couldn’t figure out how to open it right away.

NASA shared the problem in a blog post in October 2023 and spent the rest of the year working on how to open the container without damaging or contaminating the samples inside.

Finally, in January, three months after it landed on Earth, the container was opened. Luckily, the valuable and untouched asteroid material inside was successfully removed.

7. Boeing and the Troubled Starliner story

Did any company have a tougher year in 2024 than Boeing? The issues with its airplanes are well-known, and its space program didn’t fare much better, mostly because of problems with the Starliner.

The Starliner has faced issues ever since 2014, when Boeing was awarded one of two contracts to create a replacement for the Space Shuttle to transport astronauts to the ISS. (The other contract went to SpaceX, whose Dragon spacecraft successfully launched in 2020.)

After years of setbacks, the Starliner finally launched in June. Before the launch, Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, cautioned the media by saying, “Don’t expect everything to go perfectly.”

Well, about that: although Starliner successfully carried astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS, NASA was so worried about the craft’s many technical issues that it decided not to use it to bring the astronauts back.

Starliner wasn’t used to bring the astronauts back, leaving Wilmore and Williams stranded on the ISS, where they still are.

In September, Starliner returned to Earth without Wilmore and Williams. The two astronauts will stay on the ISS until February 2025, when they’ll finally come back to Earth—on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

Let’s be honest, no one expects space travel to be easy, but Starliner has been far from perfect—let’s just leave it at that.

8. SpaceX and the Troubled Boca Chica story

Speaking of SpaceX, the company managed to avoid blowing up any rockets this year—a relief after the September 2023 explosion of its Starship rocket, which even punched a hole in the atmosphere. However, 2024 wasn’t entirely smooth sailing for them either.

To begin with, SpaceX is still under investigation by the FAA for several alleged licensing and regulatory violations, something the company isn’t happy about.

SpaceX is also still creating a big mess in Boca Chica, Texas, the remote area in South Texas where its launch site is located.

For years, locals have been concerned about how the site impacts the environment, and for good reason—launches are so loud they can kill birds miles away and even damage buildings.

There are also possible long-term impacts on local plants and animals. On top of that, in August, the EPA accused SpaceX of illegally dumping wastewater contaminated with mercury at the site for years.

9. Russia tests “super weapon,” creates massive crater instead

Russia is one of eight countries with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can carry warheads, including nuclear ones, over distances of more than 3,400 miles (over 5,470 km).

ICBMs are very powerful, but they can also be very dangerous. If something goes wrong during a test, the results can be disastrous.

This seems to be what happened during a test launch of the RS-28 Sarmat missile in September. The missile, once called a “super weapon” by former Russian space agency head Dmitry Rogozin, didn’t go as planned.

Although Russia hasn’t admitted to the incident, Ars Technica shared satellite images showing what the launch site near the Plesetsk Cosmodrome looked like before and after the test.

Before the test: there were trees, buildings, and a missile silo. After the test: no trees, no buildings, and a huge crater. Oops.

10. Alien Signal Ends Up Being a Truck

The giant fireball that crashed through the atmosphere and landed in the ocean near Papua New Guinea in 2014 has sparked a lot of theories about aliens.

At first, people wondered if the meteorite itself was some kind of alien technology. Later, there were questions about the ground vibrations picked up by seismometers on nearby Manus Island.

Were the vibrations an alien signal? Nope. A study published in March explained they were most likely caused by a truck driving on a nearby road. Well, that’s that.

The author of this article is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. You can reach him at: girishlinganna@gmail.com

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own and do not reflect those of DNA)