In 2012, Curiosity Rover was the biggest space success of the year by NASA as it landed safely on the Red Planet. The same will continue in 2013 – NASA will send the second Curiosity Rover mission to the Red Planet. Apart from Curiosity NASA has unveiled an ambitious exploration program for the upcoming year including crew flights and commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station.
NASA has provided with the schedule of 2013 launches. It is expected that more than 19 different space exploring missions will be sent to International Space Station and other locations. Here are some very upcoming launches.
1. Orbital Sciences Corporation Test Flight
Date: January
Launch Vehicle: Antares
2. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS)
Date: January 29
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V
3. The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM)
Date: February 11
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V-401
4. SpaceX-2 Commercial Resupply Services Flight
Date: March 1
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9
5. Orbital Sciences Corporation Test Flight
Date: April 5
Launch Vehicle: Antares/Cygnus
6. Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)
Date: No Earlier Than April 28
Launch Vehicle: Pegasus XL
7. Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)
Date: August 12
Launch Vehicle: Minotaur V
8. Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN)
Date: November 18
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V
9. Multipurpose Laboratory Module with European Robotic Arm (ERA)
Date: December 11
Launch Vehicle: Russian Proton
