2022 in spaceflight

NASA will continue the mission of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, with a fly-by of Europa planned for 29 September 2022.[1][2]

In Mars exploration, the European Space Agency (ESA) had partnered with Roscosmos to launch the Rosalind Franklin rover using the Kazachok lander as part of ExoMars 2022.[3] In March 2022, the launch was cancelled in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent suspension of ESA–Roscosmos cooperation on ExoMars.[4]

NASA plans to launch the Psyche spacecraft, an orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, in August 2022. It will launch on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle along with Janus, a dual space probe that will visit two binary asteroids, (175706) 1996 FG3 and (35107) 1991 VH.

Artemis 1, the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and the first lunar mission for Orion, is scheduled to fly no earlier than August 2022.[5]

The United States will also launch a number of commercial lunar landers and rovers. As part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, the launch of Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lander and Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander is scheduled. Russia plans to resume its Luna-Glob exploration programme with the Luna 25 lander. Japan plans to launch the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) and OMOTENASHI lunar landers.

China will finish construction of the Tiangong space station with the addition of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules.[6]

Boeing's Starliner will conduct a second uncrewed test flight in May 2022 in advance of its first crewed test flight later in 2022.[7]

On 31 March 2022, Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle performed its fourth crewed suborbital spaceflight with 6 passengers onboard.

On 8 April 2022, SpaceX's Crew Dragon space capsule was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket for the first American space tourist mission to International Space Station. The crew on board the Axiom Space operated mission included one professional astronaut (space vehicle commander) and three tourists. The mission, known as Axiom Mission 1, lasted a little over 17 days and was the first wholly commercially-operated crewed mission to the ISS.

Arianespace's Ariane 6 will make its long-delayed maiden flight,[8] targeting a per-satellite launch cost similar to a Falcon 9.[9] After suborbital tests in 2020 and 2021, SpaceX plans to conduct the first orbital test flight of the fully reusable Starship launch vehicle.[10] In addition, NASA's SLS, which is designed to return humans to the Moon in the Artemis missions, will have a test flight.[11] The maiden flight of Vulcan Centaur is planned for 2022.[8] The launch vehicle is designed by United Launch Alliance to gradually replace Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy at lower costs.[12] Mitsubishi Heavy Industries's H3 launch vehicle, scheduled to enter service in 2022, will cost less than half that of its predecessor H-IIA.[13]

On 21 January 2022, the Atlas V 511 launched for the first time. This was the only planned flight of the Atlas V in the 511 configuration. The launch was successful.

On 29 March 2022, the Long March 6A rocket performed its maiden launch, successfully reaching orbit.

On 29 April 2022, the Angara 1.2 rocket had its maiden launch, successfully reaching orbit.

According to a space monitoring company, in January a Chinese satellite, SJ-21, grabbed an unused satellite and "threw" it into an orbit with a lower risk for the space debris to collide.[14][15] In March, the IAU announced the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference to coordinate or aggregate measures to mitigate the detrimental effects of satellite constellations on astronomy.[16][17][18]

On 24 February 2022, Russia began an open military invasion of Ukraine,[19] in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that had begun in 2014. It is the largest military attack in Europe since World War II.[20][21][22] Following the invasion, a large number of countries imposed further international sanctions against individuals, businesses and officials from Russia, Crimea and Belarus.[23][24] Russia responded with sanctions against a number of countries.

This led to tensions between the Russian space agency and its partners.

• The Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre program has been suspended.[25]
• Several Soyuz launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome have been cancelled. Combined, six launches planned for OneWeb have been cancelled.[26] The Russian space agency removed the flags of the USA and Japan from a Soyuz rocket.[27]
• On March 8, former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly declared he would give back his Russian spaceflight medal.[28]
• The ESA/Roscosmos joint ExoMars 2022 mission to launch the Rosalind Franklin rover using the Kazachok lander to Mars was suspended and the launch cancelled in March 2022.[4]
• The German component (eROSITA) of the joint German/Russian space telescope mission Spektr-RG was suspended on 26 February 2022.
• Russia announced it would stop delivering rocket engines to US and stop support (maintenance etc.) of engines already in the US.

For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of orbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the launch vehicle, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. For example, Soyuz launches by Arianespace in Kourou are counted under Russia because Soyuz-2 is a Russian launch vehicle.

Country		Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
	China	13	13	0	0
	India	1	1	0	0
	Iran	1	1	0	0
	Russia	7	7	0	0	Includes Soyuz launches from Kourou
	United States	26	25	1	0	Includes Electron launches from Mahia
World		48	47	1	0

For the purposes of this section, the yearly tally of suborbital launches by country assigns each flight to the country of origin of the rocket, not to the launch services provider or the spaceport. Flights intended to fly below 80 km (50 mi) are omitted.

Country		Launches	Successes	Failures	Partial failures	Remarks
	Canada	4	4	0	0
	China	2	2	0	0
	Iran	1	1	0	0
	Israel	3	3	0	0
	North Korea	4	4	0	0
	Pakistan	1	1	0	0
	Russia	3	3	0	0
	South Korea	4	4	0	0
	United States	6	6	0	0	1 crewed flight
	Yemen	5	5	0	0
World		33	33	0	0