Deep Space Rendezvous
| Date (UTC) | Spacecraft | Event | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 January | Mars Express | Flyby of Phobos | Closest approach: 100 kilometres (62 mi). Mars Express made a total of 8 flybys of Phobos at a distance of less than 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) between 20 December and 16 January. |
| 9 January | Artemis P1 | Spacecraft left LL2 orbit and joined Artemis P2 in LL1 orbit | |
| 11 January | Cassini | 3rd flyby of Rhea | Closest approach: 76 kilometres (47 mi) |
| 15 February | Stardust (NExT) | Flyby of Tempel 1 | Closest approach: 181 kilometres (112 mi). Observed changes since Deep Impact flyby and imaged crater created by Deep Impact impactor, as well as new terrain. |
| 18 February | Cassini | 74th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 3,651 kilometres (2,269 mi) |
| 18 March | MESSENGER | Mercurocentric orbit injection | First artificial satellite of Mercury; elliptical orbit with a periapsis of 200 kilometers (120 mi) and an apoapsis of 15,000 km (9,300 mi). |
| 19 April | Cassini | 75th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 10,053 kilometres (6,247 mi) |
| 8 May | Cassini | 76th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 1,873 kilometres (1,164 mi) |
| 8 June | Chang'e 2 | Departed lunar orbit | Travelled to L2 Lagrangian point, which it reached in August 2011. |
| 20 June | Cassini | 77th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 1,359 kilometres (844 mi) |
| 27 June | Artemis P1 | Lunar orbit insertion | Initial orbital parameters were: apogee 3,543 kilometres (2,202 mi), perigee 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi). Over the following three months, the orbit was lowered to an apogee of 97 kilometres (60 mi) and a perigee of 18,000 kilometres (11,000 mi), with an inclination of 20 degrees; retrograde orbit. |
| 16 July | Dawn | Vestiocentric orbit injection | First artificial satellite of 4 Vesta. Initial orbit was 16,000 kilometres (9,900 mi) high and was reduced to 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) until 11 August. |
| 17 July | Artemis P2 | Lunar orbit insertion | Initial orbital parameters were similar to Artemis P1. Over the following three months the orbit was lowered to an apogee of 97 kilometres (60 mi) and a perigee of 18,000 kilometres (11,000 mi), with an inclination of 20 degrees; prograde orbit. |
| 25 August | Cassini | Second-closest flyby of Hyperion | Closest approach: 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) |
| 12 September | Cassini | 78th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 5,821 kilometres (3,617 mi) |
| 16 September | Cassini | Flyby of Hyperion | Closest approach: 58,000 kilometres (36,000 mi) |
| 1 October | Cassini | 14th flyby of Enceladus | Closest approach: 99 kilometres (62 mi) |
| 19 October | Cassini | 15th flyby of Enceladus | Closest approach: 1,231 kilometres (765 mi) |
| 6 November | Cassini | 16th flyby of Enceladus | Closest approach: 496 kilometres (308 mi) |
| 12 December | Cassini | 3rd flyby of Dione | Closest approach: 99 kilometres (62 mi) |
| 13 December | Cassini | 79th flyby of Titan | Closest approach: 3,586 kilometres (2,228 mi) |
| 31 December | GRAIL-A | Lunar orbit insertion | Twin satellite Grail-B's insertion occurred a day later, on 1 January 2012. |
Read more about this topic: 2011 In Spaceflight
Famous quotes containing the words deep and/or space:
“I have always suspected that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. It is a boon to people who don’t have deep feelings; their pleasure comes from what they know about things, and their pride from showing off what they know. But this only emphasizes the difference between the artist and the scholar.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“A set of ideas, a point of view, a frame of reference is in space only an intersection, the state of affairs at some given moment in the consciousness of one man or many men, but in time it has evolving form, virtually organic extension. In time ideas can be thought of as sprouting, growing, maturing, bringing forth seed and dying like plants.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)