1. 2015 in Spaceflight: A year in review Tal Inbar Head, Space Research Center The Fisher Institute for Air & Space Strategic Studies, Israel

2. Total launches: 87 Successes: 82 Failures: 3 Partial Failures: 2 Space launches of 2015

3. 2015 space launces – by country 20 5 19 29 1 4 4

4. 2015 space launces – by orbit 44 32 7 3

5. Maiden launches Long March 3C/YZ1 (China) Long March 3B/YZ1 (China) Long March 6 (China) Long March 11 (China) Super Strypi (USA) Falcon 9V1.1 FT (USA) 88888

6. Manned spaceflights 4 missions (all to the ISS) 12 astronauts in total

7. National First: Satellites Turkmenistan: TurkmenAlem 52E Laos: LaoSat-1

8. National First: Manned missions Denmark: Andreas Mogensen

9. February: Fajr satellite is launched by Iran Third launch attempt occurred on February 2 nd 2015 Contained cold gas propulsion system Projected life time – 1.5 years Re entered Earth’s atmosphere after 3 weeks

10. April: Vulcan launch vehicle is announced A new heavy lift launch vehicle, under development by United Launch Alliance First launch planned in 2019 Partial reusability – the engines of the first stage will be parachuted back to the ground New engines under development by Blue Origin to replace the Russian made RD-180

11. July: New Horizons – First encounter with Pluto and Charon After almost a decade in space, the first ever close encounter with Pluto and Charon occurred on July 2015.

12. July: New Horizons – First encounter with Pluto and Charon

13. Dawn – encounter with Ceres Dawn was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known proto-planets of the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres. It is currently in orbit about its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres

14. June: first launch failure for Falcon 9 Commercial resupply mission to the ISS, conducted under NASA contract by SpaceX. First failure of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Subsequent investigation traced the accident to the failure of a strut which secured a helium bottle inside the second stage's liquid oxygen tank. With the helium pressurization system integrity breached, excess helium quickly flooded the liquid oxygen tank, causing it to over pressurize and burst.

15. September: First launch of Long March 6 First of the new generation of launch vehicles from China. Designed as a light capacity, High Speed response launcher Lifting capability – at least 1000 kg to SSO Liquid propulsion. Specially designed TEL allows quick range activities.

16. September: First launch of Long march 11 Second of the new generation of launch vehicles from China. Designed as a light capacity, High Speed response launcher Lifting capability – at least 700 kg to LEO; 350 to SSO (estimated). Solid propelled launcher. Specially designed TEL allows quick range activities. Canister launched.

17. November: SPARK/Super Stripy failed on maiden launch Expendable launch system developed by the University of Hawaii, Sandia national labs and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Designed to place miniaturized satellites into LEO and SSO. Funded by the ORS office of the US DOD. The launch vehicle failed on maiden flight on an early phase.

18. November: Suborbital flight and landing of New Shepard by Blue Origin Blue Origin successfully launched a spacecraft to sub orbital flight AND, for the first time, conducted a powered soft landing of its New Shepard launch vehicle.

19. December: Launcher One new configuration is revealed Launcher 1 is a Virgin Galactic plan to develop an air launched launch vehicle for small satellites. The re-designed concept was announced on December 2015 and a Boeing 747 will serve as the system’s first stage. A 200 kg to LEO is the current goal for Launcher 1.

20. December: First landing of Falcon 9 first stage after a satellite launch mission The first landing of an operational satellite launch vehicle after conducting a mission to deploy satellites in space. First attempt by SpaceX to land Falcon 9 first stage on land.

21. SpaceX: The Reusability is here!

22. Thank you for the attention! talinbar@fisherinstitute.org.il See you next year on the 12 th Ilan Ramon International Space conference on 30-31.1.2017