Reverse thrusters: Space in the year 2016

In February a rocket took Earth observation satellite Sentinel-3A into space. The task of the satellite is to guard our planet: It looks at changes in the environment and sends data back to Earth. And here is something that come with it: beautiful pictures. Here is Corsica, Elba and the Italian coast.

On March 9, our moon moved in front of the solar disc - resulting in a complete solar eclipse. That's how it looked like in some parts of Indonesia and the Pacific region. In September, the Moon covered the Sun again. But this time, it was too distant from Earth to cover the solar disc completely. The result was a ring of light - a solar eclipse of special beauty.

There was a lot going on at the International Space Station as well. British astronaut Tim Peake took up a special challenge in April. He participated in the London Marathon by running in a treadmill aboard the ISS. He finished the 42 Kilometers in 3 hours and 35 minutes. That justified an entry in the Guiness Book of Records. Cheers for the "fastest marathon in space!"

Observers were able to see the smallest of our planets on May 9. Mercury was passing between sun and earth, appearing as a tiny black dot before the solar disc. This mini solar eclipse lasted for seven and a half hours. The next transit of Mercury will be in 2029. It is best observed with a special telescope - well protected against the sunlight.

Juno entered into an orbit around the largest of our planets on July 4. Since then, the spacecraft collects data about Jupiter and sends breathtaking pictures about the gas giant back to Earth. Juno, by the way, is an ecologically friendly space probe. Unlike its predecessors, which used radioactive batteries, it is powered exclusively with solar power - despite the huge distance from the sun.

US astronaut Kathleen Rubins spent the summer of 2016 in space. In July she took off to the ISS to become the 60th woman in space. Samantha Christoforetti was at the ISS in 2014 as the first female Italian astronaut. Soon, also Germany wants to join ranks: The first German woman in space is due to travel in 2020.

After several failed attempts, Space-X finally succeeded in launching a rocket and then safely landing and recovering its first stage. Meanwhile, the ISS is getting ready for more and more private delivery companies to arrive there: In August, the astronauts installed a special door - for the docking of private spaceships.

In September many space buffs had tears in their eyes. It was "last call" for Rosetta - the spacecraft, which reached comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and then released lander Philea to its surface. Now, Rosetta faced the same fate: A targeted landing on the comet's surface - also marking the end to a very successfull mission.

It was a rougher landing than depicted here, for the lander Schiaparelli. On October 19th the space craft crashed onto the surface and broke apart, after the braking rockets failed to ignite. The saving grace? The instruments gathered valuable data all the way to the very end, so mission control now know what went wrong. More importantly, the orbiter is functional and ready for future tasks.

After launching six more satellites (now totalling 18) in 2016, the EU formally declared its navigation system to be functioning at a summit on December 15. What's new about the system? In combination with existing search and rescue satellites it can not only send but also receive signals - for example from SOS-beacons. And the system offers highly precise data for commercial applications.