Almost eclipsing the landing of a new NASA rover on Mars or the launch of the most powerful space telescope ever designed, the "billionaires' race in space", as it was quickly dubbed, will have captivated the world .
While attracting criticism, faced with an activity often considered frivolous - and harmful to the environment.
In July, Virgin Galactic was the first company to briefly touch the final frontier to its founder, Briton Richard Branson.
A few days later, Jeff Bezos flew aboard a rocket from his own company, Blue Origin.
The latter then organized two other missions - one of which had on board the actor William Shatner, iconic captain of the Star Trek series.
Much further from Earth, SpaceX for its part sent four novices into the cosmos for three days - the first orbital mission in history to have no professional astronaut on board.
Blue Origin launcher New Shepard returned to land after launching tourists into space on December 11, 2021 at Texas Patrick T. FALLON AFP / Archives
"We waited so long for private sub-orbital or orbital flights," recalls Laura Forczyk, space analyst.
"It's finally happening."
Russia also joined in the fun, sending a film crew and a Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station (ISS) - but with its traditional Soyuz rockets.
Aim for the moon
Beyond tourism, SpaceX has definitely established itself as NASA's partner of choice: Elon Musk's company has brought back two crews of astronauts from the ISS, including the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet.
In parallel, it has developed another rocket: Starship.
Several tests that ended in huge fireballs made the headlines, before a finally successful landing in May.
Part of NASA's giant SLS rocket, which will be used for the Artemis return missions to the moon, assembled at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Handout NASA / AFP / Archives
The device, whose tests are to continue in 2022, has been selected by NASA to become the means of transport used to bring Americans back to the lunar surface ... at the earliest in 2025, the space agency announced in November. , forced to postpone the deadline by one year.
Despite everything, the Artemis program to return to the Moon, relaunched by Donald Trump's administration, was maintained by President Joe Biden after taking office in January, said Laura Forczyk.
"If you don't have that continuity, you're never going anywhere," noted the specialist.
Scientific achievements
In terms of scientific advances, the James Webb telescope, awaited for 30 years by astronomers around the world, took off on Christmas Day from French Guiana.
Takeoff of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from the Kourou Space Center, in French Guiana, December 25, 2021 jody amiet AFP / Archives
Worth around 10 billion dollars, it must push the limits of our knowledge of the cosmos, by making it possible, among other things, to observe the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang and to analyze the atmosphere of exoplanets, in search of habitable environments.
Another flagship mission, the Perseverance rover survived the “seven minutes of terror” of its landing on Mars in February.
He has since taken several rock samples, which may be able to detect traces of ancient alien life (in microbial form).
His travel partner, the Ingenuity helicopter, made the first flight of a motorized vehicle on another world.
And has since completed no less than 18 - more than initially hoped for.
A selfie of the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars, and one of the rocks sampled from in search of ancient life, in September 2021 Handout NASA / AFP / Archives
Space exploration has not, however, remained the prerogative of the United States, China in particular becoming in May the second country to develop a small robot on Mars.
In February, the United Arab Emirates placed a probe around Mars, becoming the first Arab country to achieve this feat.
According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, the year was thus marked by an "internationalization of deep space".
Low orbit was already low "for a long time", but here too, competition between countries has increased.
China continued to build its own station, called Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace").
While NASA has announced that it is putting its hand in its pocket to help develop future private stations, which will eventually replace the ISS.
The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, in a NASA image taken by the Perseverance rover in June 2021 Handout NASA / AFP / Archives
Cooperation with Russia on the latter should thus end by 2030. And tensions with Moscow were not lacking in 2021: in November, Washington accused Russia of having caused the spread of thousands of dangerous debris in detonating a satellite, with a missile fire.
And for 2022?
The next year should be marked by the images of the James Webb telescope, once its perilous deployment is completed.
The first to be revealed will be a surprise, jealously kept secret.
2022 should also mark the start of the American program for returning to the Moon, with the Artemis 1 mission. It should take off in February but without an astronaut on board, and without landing.
Illustration provided on November 4, 2021 by Nasa of the DART spacecraft which is to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos in order to slightly deviate from its trajectory Handout NASA / AFP
Before that, in the fall, a spacecraft projected by NASA against an asteroid will have to modify its trajectory.
A dress rehearsal in order to be able to save humanity if one day an asteroid were to threaten our planet.
© 2021 AFP