After a start with key missions, 2019 to be a big year for space subjects

The first few days of 2019 brought remarkable news from outer space. On January 1 NASA’s New Horizons space probe made the most distant planetary flyby ever, and captured images of a small object 4 billion miles away from earth. The following day, China landed its Chang'e 4 rover, named Jade Rabbit 2, on the far side of the moon – another first.

This suggests that 2019 will be a big year for all things related to space; a suggestion borne out by developments at the International Astronautical Federation’s International Astronautical Congress