![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusJune 2: ESA launches Mars Express, including the Beagle 2 lander
June 8: NASA launches Mars Explorer Rover A
June 25: NASA launches Mars Explorer Rover B
August 27: Mars approaches 34.5 million miles from Earth, the closest it will be for 30,000 years (in the Pacific Northwest, it rises around 9:30 pm that night)
November 1: China launches Shenzhou IV, their first manned spacecraft, becoming only the third nation to launch a human into orbit on their own craft. They are expected to visit the moon within ten years, becoming only the second nation to do so, and the only nation with a continuing manned lunar program.
December 24: Beagle 2 lands on Mars, begins drilling down 6' through the Martian permafrost, looking for life.
Jan 4: MER-A lands, sending out the first of a pair of golf-cart-sized rovers over the Martian surface (the new rovers can travel in a day what Sojourner did in its entire mission)
Jan 25: MER-B lands the second of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers.
June 8: NASA launches Mars Explorer Rover A
June 25: NASA launches Mars Explorer Rover B
August 27: Mars approaches 34.5 million miles from Earth, the closest it will be for 30,000 years (in the Pacific Northwest, it rises around 9:30 pm that night)
November 1: China launches Shenzhou IV, their first manned spacecraft, becoming only the third nation to launch a human into orbit on their own craft. They are expected to visit the moon within ten years, becoming only the second nation to do so, and the only nation with a continuing manned lunar program.
December 24: Beagle 2 lands on Mars, begins drilling down 6' through the Martian permafrost, looking for life.
Jan 4: MER-A lands, sending out the first of a pair of golf-cart-sized rovers over the Martian surface (the new rovers can travel in a day what Sojourner did in its entire mission)
Jan 25: MER-B lands the second of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers.
