The Twelve Most Anticipated Space Missions of 2012

Space.com (a brilliant website, by the way) has published a list of exciting developments to look forward to in 2012. It's a nice pick-me-up after NASA's recent closure of the space shuttle program -- truly, the end of an era.

Commercial spaceflight has been generating loads of buzz for what seems like ages now, and these vehicles are soon to visit the International Space Station, which is going to keep operating even if NASA is not (and China's personal space station is well underway). You've probably heard the most about Virgin Galactic, though, which aims to create and dominate a suborbital spaceflight tourist industry.



Plus, LightSail-1, which relies on sunlight as its sole source of fuel, is due to be launched this year.

It's not all about exciting, new developments, however. NASA is sending (massively expensive) probes to the Moon and Mars to collect further data and we expect more information from long-running probes that are currently sailing to the outer reaches of the solar system.

My favourite update: human presence has been constant in space since 2000 and the ISS intends to keep it that way until 2020, with a constant rotation of astronauts performing experiments in the only existing microgravity laboratory.

Read the full article here.