[imagesource: SpaceX]

It’s been a very strange year on Earth, too.

2021 can go right in the bin as far as most of us are concerned.

At least 2021 will go down as one of the more memorable years in space for a multitude of reasons. It heralded the beginning of a new era of space travel and the commercial industry looks set to expand dramatically in the coming years.

For a space year review of sorts we go to Gizmodo, starting with panic at the International Space Station (ISS):

In one of the most serious incidents in the 21-year history of the ISS, the orbital outpost on July 29 unexpectedly rolled backwards by 540 degrees when thrusters from the newly arrived Nauka module suddenly roared to life.

Russian flight controllers regained control after 47 minutes of terror, during which time the ISS performed 1.5 unscheduled backflips. Orbiting upside down, an additional 180-degree forward flip was required to bring the outpost back to its original position.

Had the spinning been much worse serious damage could have been caused to ISS, although NASA denied that any of the 65 astronauts on board were in danger at any point.

I must once more revisit the notorious leaky toilet incident:

In September, astronauts participating in the first all-private mission to space, the Inspiration4 mission, had to keep their cool after an alarm went off, indicating a “significant” but unknown problem.

The alarm was eventually traced to “mechanical problems” having to do with Crew Dragon’s waste management system, specifically its fans, which pull human waste away from the body.

Due to a loose tube urine was prevented from entering the storage tank, causing it to spill beneath the Crew Dragon floor.

It’s a far cry from the wonderful view that was supposed to await the crew as they used the cupola (the glass dome up top):

Having that view yanked away from me would ruin the entire trip. It’s so good you wouldn’t even need to take your phone to the toilet with you.

Let’s backpedal to February and a time when SpaceX rocket landings were not going to plan:

Launching the 160-foot-tall (50-meter) rocket to a height of 6 miles (9.7 km) wasn’t the problem, nor was the controlled aerodynamic descent. It was the final stage of the test that proved to be the sticking point, as the rocket struggled to survive the landing.

That’s a pretty euphemistic take on what happened. Watch from the one-minute mark:

That rocket is kaput.

Movies in outer space? Yes:

A Russian film crew consisting of actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko arrived at the ISS in early October to film scenes for an upcoming film titled Vyzov, or Challenge in English.

Peresild, who won the role in an open competition, is portraying Zhenya, an operating surgeon who must be rushed to the ISS to save the life of an ailing cosmonaut.

Peresild and Shipenko spent 12 days in space filming scenes, and had to immediately start filming again upon landing in the Kazakhstan desert.

At one stage Tom Cruise was in a race to beat the Russians but he eventually bowed out.

I’d like to add my own oddity here – the rocket that Jeff Bezos went to space in and its very phallic appearance.

Come on:

Congrats to Jeff Bezos on his successful rocket launch. And also for totally not overcompensating for something pic.twitter.com/fI3OMxiaVQ

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) July 20, 2021

Let’s not forget TIME’s newly-crowned man of the year chiming in here:

Nice

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2021

There is no love lost between Elon and Jeff.

Well, I’m done. You can read the rest of the space year in review here.

[source:gizmodo]