Science & Discovery in the 21st century

351 sourced entries, 2000 CE to 2025 CE, oldest first. Also see Science & Discovery across every century or everything else in the 21st century.

• 2000January 8 – In Soria (Spain) a large chunk of ice is reported to have fallen from the sky. Over the following months, a social panic about this phenomenon is unleashed, with reports of a multitude of similar cases of falling ice chunks (incorrectly named as aerolites) all over Spain, attracting great attention from the Spanish media.source
• 2000February 13 – Final Peanuts comic is printed in newspapers, preceded by author Charles M. Schulz's death the night before. It is the most popular comic strip in history, running for 50 years.source
• 2000March 4 – Sony releases the PlayStation 2 in Japan to compete with the Dreamcast. It launches in other countries later in the year.source
• 2000March 12 – A Zenit-3SL sea launch fails due to a software bug.source
• 2000May 1 – A new class of composite material is fabricated, which has a combination of physical properties never before seen in a natural or human-made material.source
• 2000May 2 — The Selective Availability limiter is removed from the Global Positioning System, allowing for practical general-purpose use. The date is sometimes known as "Blue Switch Day".source
• 2000May 5 – A rare conjunction of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, planets Mercury–Saturn) occurs during the new moon.source
• 2000May 13 – Millennium Force opens at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, as the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster.source
• 2000June 26 – A first draft of the Human Genome Project is finished. It is announced at the White House by U.S. President Clinton with Francis Collins and Craig Venter jointly with the UK Prime Minister in London.source
• 2000August 8 – The US Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.source
• 2000September 13 – Steve Jobs introduces the Mac OS X Public Beta for US$29.95.source
• 2000September 14 – Microsoft releases Windows Me.source
• 2000October 22 – The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper exposes Japanese archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises on his findings.source
• 2000October 31 – Soyuz TM-31 is launched, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.source
• 2001February 12 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, a near-Earth object, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.source
• 2001February 12 – The Human Genome Project publishes the first draft of its human genome sequence.source
• 2001March 22 – Kenyanthropus is described as an early hominid after the discovery of remains in Kenya.source
• 2001March 22 – Incheon International Airport opens in Incheon, South Korea.source
• 2001March 23 – The deorbit of Russian space station Mir is processed, with debris falling into the South Pacific Ocean after the station enters the atmosphere and is destroyed.source
• 2001April 7 – The NASA orbiter 2001 Mars Odyssey launches on a Delta II rocket.source
• 2001April 11 – Australia's football team wins against American Samoa in a record 31–0 victory, just two days after setting the record with a 0–22 victory against Tonga.source
• 2001April 28 – The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first space tourist, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito, and two Russian cosmonauts.source
• 2001May 22 – 28978 Ixion, a large trans-Neptunian object and a possible dwarf planet, is discovered during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.source
• 2001May 22 – The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is adopted by 127 countries to limit pollution internationally.source
• 2001July 12 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its Third Assessment Report.source
• 2001August 8 – The Genesis probe is launched from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 17.source
• 2001September 22 – American spacecraft Deep Space 1 flies within 2200 km of Comet Borrelly.source
• 2001October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 181 km of Jupiter's moon Io.source
• 2001October 24 – The 2001 Mars Odyssey arrives at Mars.source
• 2001October 30 – The Aarhus Convention takes effect, establishing the right to environmental information and environmental justice for European and Central Asian countries.source
• 2001November 27 – A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet HD 209458 b, nicknamed Osiris, by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.source
• 2001December 3 – The Segway, a self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen, is unveiled after months of public speculation and media hype on the ABC News morning program Good Morning America.source
• 2002February 19 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.source
• 2002March 1 – The Envisat environmental satellite is launched, with its purpose being the recording of information on environmental change.source
• 2002March 25 – Shenzhou 3 is launched from China.source
• 2002April 18 – Romanian mathematician Preda Mihăilescu creates a proof for the Catalan's conjecture, which had gone unsolved for 158 years.source
• 2002April 25 – South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Soyuz TM-34, becoming the first African space tourist.source
• 2002May 4 – NASA launches the Aqua satellite as part of the Earth Observing System.source
• 2002June 4 – The ringed dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory.source
• 2002June 10 – British scientist Kevin Warwick carries out first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.source
• 2002July 3 – NASA launches the CONTOUR satellite but loses contact.source
• 2002July 11 – The discovery of the early hominid Sahelanthropus is announced.source
• 2002August 26–September 4 – Earth Summit 2002 takes places in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.source
• 2002August 28 – EUMETSAT launches the Meteosat 8 satellite as part of its Meteosat program.source
• 2002October 17 – The European Space Agency launches the INTEGRAL observatory.source
• 2002October 21 – The discovery of the James Ossuary is announced.source
• 2002December 29 – Shenzhou 4 is launched from China.source
• 2003January 6 – The discovery of OGLE-TR-56b, the first exoplanet to be discovered through transit photometry, is announced.source
• 2003January 22 – The last signal from NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft is received, some 12.2 billion kilometers (7.6 billion mi) from Earth.source
• 2003April 14 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.source
• 2003April 28 – The iTunes Store launches.source
• 2003June 2 – Mars Express launches, containing the Beagle 2 lander.source
• 2003June 10 – NASA launches the Spirit rover.source
• 2003June 12 – Homo sapiens idaltu is proposed as a new human subspecies based on the Herto Man fossils.source
• 2003July 1 – In a major development in football, English footballer David Beckham is transferred from Manchester United F.C. to Real Madrid CF for £17.25 million.source
• 2003July 7 – NASA launches the Opportunity rover.source
• 2003July 10 – The existence of PSR B1620−26 b, the oldest known exoplanet in the galaxy, is confirmed using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope.source
• 2003August 12 – The discovery of the dinosaur species Rajasaurus narmadensis is announced.source
• 2003August 16 – Element 110 is formally named darmstadtium by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.source
• 2003August 25 – The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.source
• 2003August 27 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in over 60,000 years.source
• 2003September 21 – NASA ends the Galileo probe mission after nearly 14 years by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.source
• 2003September 24 – The Hubble Space Telescope starts the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, making 800 exposures, until January 16, 2004.source
• 2003September 27 – SMART-1, an ESA spaceprobe and ESA's first mission to the moon, is launched from Kourou, French Guiana.source
• 2003October 15 – China launches Shenzhou 5, the country's first human spaceflight.source
• 2003October 23 – A Russian air base opens in Kant, Kyrgyzstan, as Russia's first foreign air base since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.source
• 2003October 23 – The Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants comes into effect.source
• 2003October 24 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to an end.source
• 2003November 14 – The dwarf planet Sedna is discovered by a team of astronomers led by Michael E. Brown from the Palomar Observatory.source
• 2003November 26 – The supersonic passenger jet, Concorde, makes its last ever flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Bristol Filton Airport.source
• 2003December 19 – The Beagle 2 Mars lander deploys, but contact is lost.source
• 2004January 4 – NASA's Spirit rover lands on the surface of Mars.source
• 2004January 25 – NASA's Opportunity rover lands on the surface of Mars.source
• 2004March 2 – The European Space Agency launches the Rosetta space probe.source
• 2004March 9 – NASA releases the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image of early galaxies.source
• 2004April 13 – A newborn western gorilla is observed for the first time in 50 years in the Léfini Faunal Reserve.source
• 2004April 19 – Russia launches the Soyuz TMA-4 mission.source
• 2004May 7 – The discovery of the post-perovskite form of magnesium silicate is reported.source
• 2004May 17 – The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants enters into force.source
• 2004June 8 – A transit of Venus occurs.source
• 2004June 21 – In Mojave, California, United States, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.source
• 2004June 29 – The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture enters into force.source
• 2004July 1 – The Cassini–Huygens orbiter reaches the orbit of Saturn.source
• 2004July 15 – The use of magnetic resonance imaging to study the spin of a single electron is reported.source
• 2004August 3 – NASA's MESSENGER space probe is launched, with its primary mission being the study of Mercury.source
• 2004August 5 – Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport begins operation in Guangzhou, China.source
• 2004September 8 – The Genesis space probe crash-lands in Utah after a three-year study of the Sun.source
• 2004October 14 – Russia launches the Soyuz TMA-5 mission.source
• 2004October 28 – The prehistoric human species Homo floresiensis is described.source
• 2004November 13 – The European Space Agency probe SMART-1 arrives at the Moon, becoming the first European satellite to fly to the Moon and orbit it.source
• 2004November 15 – The SMART-1 satellite reaches the orbit of the Moon.source
• 2004November 20 – NASA launches the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer telescope.source
• 2005January 5 – Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.source
• 2005January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral with the purpose of studying the comet Tempel 1.source
• 2005January 14 – The Huygens spacecraft lands on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.source
• 2005January 20 – The most intense solar particle event in recorded history is observed.source
• 2005March 31 – The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.source
• 2005April 8 – The first solar eclipse of the year was a rare hybrid event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 4.4 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -0.34733. A hybrid solar eclipse was visible from south Pacific, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela, and was the 51st solar eclipse of Solar Saros 129.source
• 2005April 24 – The first lunar eclipse of the year was a penumbral event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 5 days before the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -1.08851. A penumbral lunar eclipse was visible in eastern Asia, Australia, Pacific and Americas, and was the 23rd lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 141.source
• 2005April 27 – The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse.source
• 2005August 12 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape Canaveral, designed to explore Mars.source
• 2005October 3 – The second solar eclipse of 2005 was an annular event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 4.8 days after the Moon reached apogee. Gamma had a value of 0.33058. An annular solar eclipse was visible in Portugal, Spain, Libya, Sudan and Kenya, and was the 43rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 134.source
• 2005October 12 – The second crewed Chinese spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, is launched.source
• 2005October 17 – The final eclipse of 2005 was a partial lunar eclipse event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 2.9 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of 0.97960. A partial lunar eclipse was visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and North America, and was the 10th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 146.source
• 2005November 22 – Microsoft releases the Xbox 360.source
• 2005December 12 – Scientists announce that they have created mice with small numbers of human neurons in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders.source
• 2005December 31 – Another second is added, 23:59:60, to end the year 2005, the first time since 1998.source
• 2006January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet.source
• 2006January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the New Horizons.source
• 2006March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water.source
• 2006March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars.source
• 2006April 11 – The European Space Agency's Venus Express space probe enters Venus' orbit.source
• 2006May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final chromosome sequence, in Nature.source
• 2006August 24 – The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at its 26th General Assembly, removing Pluto's status as a planet and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet 76 years after its discovery. Ironically, this was in the same year when NASA sent its first probe to the celestial body.source
• 2006September 7 – Partial lunar eclipse, visible over most of Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.source
• 2006September 22 – Annular solar eclipse, visible in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, parts of Brazil, and the southern Atlantic.source
• 2006November 11 – Sony releases the PlayStation 3.source
• 2006November 19 – Nintendo releases the Wii.source
• 2007March 3 – A total lunar eclipse occurs and is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. It is the 52nd lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros series 123 occurring at the moon's descending node. The moon is just 3.2 days before apogee, making it fairly small.source
• 2007March 19 – The first solar eclipse of the year 2007 is a partial solar eclipse occurring just 0.7 days before perigee, making it very large. The Moon covers 87.558% of the Sun. In this partial solar eclipse, the best visibility occurs at 61º02'55" N, 55º28'04" E. It is the 20th solar eclipse of Solar Saros series 149, at ascending node. The Sun is its zenith just 83 km south of the Equator, so the Northern Hemisphere was in winter and the Southern Hemisphere was in summer on March 19, 2007.source
• 2007April 24 – Gliese 581c, a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet habitable for life, is discovered in the constellation Libra.source
• 2007June 5 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second fly-by of Venus on route to Mercury.source
• 2007July 17 – The dwarf planet Gonggong is discovered by astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz from the Palomar Observatory.source
• 2007August 4 – The Phoenix spacecraft is launched toward Mars to study its north pole.source
• 2007September 14 – The SELENE spacecraft launches, with its objective being to study the Moon.source
• 2008January 14 – At 19:04:39 UTC, the uncrewed MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.source
• 2008March 9 – The first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station, launches from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.source
• 2008March 19 – An Energy release of a Gamma-ray burst called the GRB 080319B is the brightest event ever recorded in the Universe.source
• 2008May 2 – Iron Man is released in theaters, starting the Marvel Cinematic Universe.source
• 2008May 25 – NASA's uncrewed Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.source
• 2008June 11 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched.source
• 2008September 10 – The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.source
• 2008September 16 – The first two ten-million-digit primes, M 43,112,609 and M 37,156,667 , discovered on August 23 and September 6, respectively, are officially revealed.source
• 2008September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.source
• 2008October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated at Geneva.source
• 2008October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.source
• 2008November 1 – Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".source
• 2008November 20 – The Buzzard Coulee meteorite falls in Saskatchewan. Reported to be 5 times brighter than the full moon and is seen in Alberta, Manitoba, and even North Dakota.source
• 2008December 31 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.source
• 2009January 26 – An annular solar eclipse takes place over the Indian Ocean, the 50th solar eclipse of Saros cycle 131.source
• 2009February 13 – At 23:31:30 UTC, the decimal representation of Unix time reached 1234567890 seconds. Celebrations were held around the world, among various technical subcultures, to celebrate the 1234567890th second.source
• 2009March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer that will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.source
• 2009April 5 – North Korea launches a rocket from its Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, which it says is carrying the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.source
• 2009May 11–24 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, landing at Edwards Air Force Base May 24.source
• 2009June 18 – NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter / LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.source
• 2009July 19 – Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley is the first to report that a new dark spot has developed on the planet Jupiter. This event would come to be known as the 2009 Jupiter impact event.source
• 2009July 22 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds (0.14 seconds shorter than 6 minutes and 39 seconds), occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.source
• 2009October 1 – Paleontologists announce the discovery of an Ardipithecus ramidus fossil skeleton, deeming it the oldest remains of a human ancestor yet found.source
• 2009November 13 – Having analyzed the data from the LCROSS lunar impact, NASA announces that it has found a "significant" quantity of water in the Moon's Cabeus crater.source
• 2009December 16 – Astronomers discover GJ 1214 b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.source
• 2010January 4 – The tallest man-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is officially opened.source
• 2010January 15 – The longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs.source
• 2010March 14 – Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions were released in North America. These are the highest rated games to date, with a user score of 9.1/10 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim," and a critic score of 87.source
• 2010May 7 – Scientists conducting the Neanderthal genome project announce that they have sequenced enough of the Neanderthal genome to suggest that Neanderthals and humans may have interbred.source
• 2010May 20 – Scientists announced that they have created a functional synthetic genome.source
• 2010May 25–29 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 takes place in Oslo, Norway, and is won by German entrant Lena with the song "Satellite".source
• 2010June 24 – FIA appointed Pirelli as official tyre partner and supplier for Formula One from season onwards.source
• 2010October 22 – The International Space Station surpasses the record for the longest continuous human occupation of space, having been continuously inhabited since November 2, 2000 (3641 days).source
• 2010November 17 – Researchers at CERN trap 38 antihydrogen atoms for a sixth of a second, marking the first time in history that humans have trapped antimatter.source
• 2010December 21 – The first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern winter solstice and Southern summer solstice since 1638 takes place.source
• 2010December – Comet Hale Bopp was found again around 30.7 AU away from the Sun. The previous time the Comet was found was in April 1997.source
• 2011January 27 – Within Ursa Minor, H1504+65, a white dwarf with the hottest known surface temperature in the universe at 200,000 K, was documented.source
• 2011February 26 – The Nintendo 3DS has its first release in Japan, following later releases in Europe on March 25, North America on March 27, and Australia on March 31.source
• 2011July 12 – The planet Neptune completes its first orbit since it was discovered in 1846.source
• 2011July 21 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135, concluding NASA's Space Shuttle program.source
• 2011August 5 – NASA announces that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.source
• 2011August 5 – Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.source
• 2011November 26 – The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It lands on Mars on August 6, 2012.source
• 2012March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.source
• 2012April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the republic.source
• 2012May 20 – An annular solar eclipse visible from Asia and North America is the 58th solar eclipse from 73 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.source
• 2012May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to the public.source
• 2012June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.source
• 2012June 18 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong-1, making this the third country, after the United States and Russia, successfully to perform the mission.source
• 2012June 30 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of June. The last time this occurred was in 2008.source
• 2012July 4 – CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.source
• 2012August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.source
• 2012August 25 – The Voyager 1 space probe becomes the first human-made object to successfully exit the Solar System and enter Interstellar space, and to an extent, becoming the first Interstellar probe, pioneering Interstellar exploration.source
• 2012September 4 – Windows 7 overtakes Windows XP in market share globally.source
• 2012October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance, during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 128,000 ft (24 mi km) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.source
• 2012October 26 – Microsoft releases Windows 8 to the general public.source
• 2012November 13 – A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. It is the 45th of 72 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.source
• 2012December 12 – North Korea successfully launches satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2.source
• 2012December 21 – The music video for Psy's "Gangnam Style" becomes the first YouTube video to reach a billion views.source
• 2012December 28 – Japanese supercentarian Jiroemon Kimura surpasses the final age of Danish-American supercentarian Christian Mortensen of 115 years, 252 days and becomes the oldest validated man in recorded history.source
• 2013May 15 – Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University in the United States describe the first production of human embryonic stem cells by cloning, in a study published in the scientific journal Nature.source
• 2013October 17 – Microsoft releases Windows 8.1.source
• 2013November 5 – The uncrewed Mars Orbiter Mission is launched by India from its launch pad in Sriharikota.source
• 2013December 14 – Chinese uncrewed spacecraft Chang'e 3, carrying the Yutu rover, becomes the first spacecraft to "soft"-land on the Moon since 1976 and the third ever robotic rover to do so.source
• 2014January 5 – A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV Mk.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic rocket engine.source
• 2014September 24 – The Mars Orbiter Mission, popularly known as Mangalyaan, which was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation, reached Martian orbit, making India the first Asian country to successfully reach Mars.source
• 2014October 24 – Alan Eustace, an American computer scientist, sets a world record highest and longest free fall jump from 135908 ft km over Roswell, New Mexico, United States, breaking the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of a massive helium-filled balloon. His descent to Earth lasts 4 minutes 27 seconds and stretches nearly 26 mi km with peak speeds exceeding 822 mph km/h, setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance 123414 ft m.source
• 2014November 2 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the final part of its Fifth Assessment Report, warning that the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage from global emissions of CO 2 .source
• 2014November 12 – The uncrewed Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.source
• 2014December 3 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches uncrewed spaceprobe Hayabusa2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year round-trip mission to Ryugu to collect rock samples.source
• 2015March 6 – NASA's Dawn probe enters orbit around Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet.source
• 2015March 20 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the north Atlantic, Faroe Islands, and Svalbard. It is the 61st eclipse of the 120th saros cycle.source
• 2015April 4 – The April 2015 lunar eclipse is visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and the Americas. It is a shallow total lunar eclipse, with 0.08% of that diameter inside of Earth's umbral shadow, and is the 30th eclipse of the 132nd saros cycle.source
• 2015June 30 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end of June. The last time this occurred was in 2012.source
• 2015July 14 – NASA's New Horizons spacecraft performs a close flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft in history to visit the distant world.source
• 2015September 10 – Scientists announce the discovery of Homo naledi, a previously unknown species of early human in South Africa.source
• 2015September 13 – A partial solar eclipse is visible in southern Africa, the southern Indian Ocean, and Antarctica. It is the 54th eclipse of Saros cycle 125.source
• 2015September 14 – First observation of gravitational waves: Gravitational waves are detected for the first time, by LIGO. This is not announced until February 11, 2016.source
• 2015September 28 – NASA announces that liquid water has been found on Mars.source
• 2015December 22 – SpaceX lands an uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket, the first reusable rocket to successfully enter orbital space and return.source
• 2016January 16 – The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has adequately dismantled its nuclear weapons program, allowing the United Nations to lift sanctions immediately.source
• 2016February 7 – North Korea launches a reconnaissance satellite named Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into space, it is condemned internationally as a long-range ballistic missile test.source
• 2016March 14 – The ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to Mars.source
• 2016July 5 – NASA's Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.source
• 2016July 6 – The augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go is released, breaking numerous records in terms of sales and revenue.source
• 2016July 22 – The final videocassette recorder is manufactured by the Japanese company Funai.source
• 2016September 1 – An annular solar eclipse was visible from Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.source
• 2016September 8 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx, its first asteroid sample return mission. The probe visited Bennu from 2018 to 2021 and would return samples to Earth on September 24, 2023.source
• 2016September 28 – Global levels exceed 400 ppm at the time of year normally associated with minimum levels. A 400 ppm level is believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history.source
• 2016October 15 – 150 nations meet at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) summit in Rwanda and agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as an amendment to the Montreal Protocol.source
• 2016December 28 – The chemical elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are officially named Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine and Oganesson.source
• 2017February 11 – North Korea prompts international condemnation by test firing a ballistic missile across the Sea of Japan.source
• 2017February 26 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Pacific, Chile, Argentina, Atlantic, Africa. It is the 29th eclipse of the 140th saros cycle (descending node), which started with a partial solar eclipse visible in the Southern Hemisphere on April 16, 1512, and will conclude with another partial solar eclipse visible in the Northern Hemisphere on June 1, 2774.source
• 2017March 3 – Nintendo releases the Switch worldwide.source
• 2017March 30 – SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital-class rocket.source
• 2017April 13 – In the 2017 Nangarhar airstrike, the U.S. drops the GBU-43/B MOAB, the world's largest non-nuclear weapon, at an ISIL base in the Nangarhar Province of eastern Afghanistan.source
• 2017June 10 – The 2017 World Expo is opened in Astana, Kazakhstan.source
• 2017August 17 – The first observation of a collision of two neutron stars (GW170817) is hailed as a breakthrough in multi-messenger astronomy when both gravitational and electromagnetic waves from the event are detected. Data from the event provided confirmatory evidence for the r-process theory of the origin of heavy elements like gold.source
• 2017August 21 – A total solar eclipse (nicknamed "The Great American Eclipse") is visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States of America, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. The moon was just 3 days past perigee, making it relatively large.source
• 2017September 15 – Cassini–Huygens ends its 13-year mission by plunging into Saturn, becoming the first spacecraft to enter the planet's atmosphere.source
• 2017November 2 – A new species of orangutan is identified in Indonesia, becoming the third known species of orangutan as well as the first great ape to be described for almost a century.source
• 2017November 20 – Nature publishes an article recognising the high-velocity asteroid ʻOumuamua as originating from outside the Solar System, i.e. the first known interstellar object.source
• 2018January 24 – Scientists in China report in the journal Cell the creation of the first monkey clones using somatic cell nuclear transfer, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.source
• 2018January 31 – A total lunar eclipse takes place, the 49th eclipse of Lunar Saros 124. This was referred to by the media as a 'super blue blood moon' as it was close to a supermoon, with perigee being on January 30, and a blue moon eclipse, the first since 1982.source
• 2018February 6 – SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.source
• 2018April 18 – NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is launched.source
• 2018May 5 – NASA's space probe InSight is launched. It landed on Mars on November 26 and uses a drill to conduct geological science.source
• 2018July 25 – Scientists report the presence of a subglacial lake on Mars, 1.5 km mi below the southern polar ice cap and extending sideways about 20 km mi, the first known body of water on the planet.source
• 2018July 27 – The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century occurs, lasting 102 minutes and 57.3 seconds, but the longest total lunar eclipse of the 3rd millennium will occur on May 12, 2264, lasting 106 minutes and 13.2 seconds, over 3 minutes longer than this eclipse. It was the 38th eclipse of Lunar Saros 129, with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 1.60868. The total lunar eclipse with the greatest magnitude in the 21st century will occur on June 26, 2029, with an umbral eclipse magnitude of 1.84362.source
• 2018July 31 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth since 2003, four days after reaching opposition.source
• 2018October 19 – The uncrewed European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo is launched on a seven-year journey to Mercury.source
• 2018October 30 – NASA's Kepler space telescope mission ends after the spacecraft runs out of fuel.source
• 2018November 5 – Two U.S. space probes simultaneously (and coincidentally) reach "opposite" milestones in relation to the solar heliosphere: Voyager 2 passed through the heliopause, the outer limit of the Sun's magnetic field, into interstellar space within hours of the Parker Solar Probe reaching its first perihelion, the closest point to the Sun on its initial orbit.source
• 2018November 26 – NASA's InSight probe successfully lands on the surface of Mars.source
• 2018December 3 – NASA reports the arrival of the OSIRIS-REx probe at Bennu, the agency's first sample-return mission to an asteroid.source
• 2019January 1 – New Horizons makes a close approach to the Kuiper belt object (KBO) 486958 Arrokoth at 05:33 UTC.source
• 2019January 3 – Chinese probe Chang'e 4 becomes the first artificial object to land on the far side of the Moon.source
• 2019February 21 – SpaceIL launches the Beresheet probe, the world's first privately financed mission to the Moon.source
• 2019March 3 – An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the International Space Station.source
• 2019April 10 – Fossil fragments found in the Callao Cave in the Philippines reveal the existence of a new species of human, the Homo luzonensis. The species is named after Luzon, where the fossils were discovered.source
• 2019April 10 – Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.source
• 2019April 18 – NepaliSat-1 is launched. It is Nepal's first ever research satellite to be sent into space.source
• 2019April 25 – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits Russia to hold a series of summits with Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin.source
• 2019June 20 – 2019 Iranian shoot-down of American drone: Iran shoots down a U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz after claiming it violated their airspace. The U.S. claims it has been shot down in international airspace in an "unprovoked attack".source
• 2019July 1 – The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran has breached the limit on its stockpile of enriched uranium.source
• 2019July 2 – A total solar eclipse occurs over South America. It is the 58th solar eclipse from Saros cycle 127.source
• 2019September 6 – Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar probe, is successfully placed in lunar orbit, but the lander Vikram crashes into the surface of the Moon.source
• 2019September 7 – Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and 66 others are released in a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.source
• 2019September 11 – Astronomers announce the detection of water in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b, the first such discovery for an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star.source
• 2019September 30 – The Republic of Ireland promises to plant 440 million trees in twenty years to combat climate change.source
• 2019October 18 – NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conduct the first all-female spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.source
• 2019October 23 – Google announces that its 53-qubit "Sycamore" processor has achieved quantum supremacy. IBM disputes the claim.source
• 2019November 5 – 11,000 scientists from around the world publish a study in the journal BioScience, warning "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency".source
• 2019November 25 – The World Meteorological Organization reports that levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high of 407.8 parts per million, with "no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline."source
• 2019December 18 – The CHEOPS space telescope, whose mission is to study the formation of extrasolar planets and determine their precise radius, likely density and internal structure, is launched.source
• 2019December 20 – The United States founds the United States Space Force, a branch of the United States Armed Forces dedicated to space warfare.source
• 2019December 26 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from South Asia. This is a part of Saros 132.source
• 2020January 9 – A rare, circumbinary planet called TOI 1338-b is discovered.source
• 2020February 13 – NASA publishes a detailed study of Arrokoth, the most distant body ever explored by a spacecraft.source
• 2020April 10 – The ESA/JAXA space probe BepiColombo makes its final gravity assist around Earth and begins to depart for Venus, where it will make several gravity assist maneuvers before finally arriving at Mercury in 2025.source
• 2020April 22 – Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deploys the country's first military satellite, using a new satellite carrier called "Ghased" ("Messenger").source
• 2020April 28 – A fast radio burst is detected from the Magnetar SGR 1935+2154, the first ever detected inside the Milky Way, and the first to be linked to a known source.source
• 2020April 29 – (52768) 1998 OR2, a near-Earth asteroid that is 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) wide, makes a close approach of 0.042 AU (6.3 million km; 16 LD) to Earth. It will not approach closer than this until 2079.source
• 2020April 30 – NASA officially selects SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to build its next-generation lunar lander to carry American astronauts to the Moon by 2024.source
• 2020May 6 – Astronomers announce the discovery of the first black hole located in a star system visible to the naked eye.source
• 2020May 11 – The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology publishes the result of radiocarbon and DNA analysis from the fossils that has been found in the Bacho Kiro cave, Bulgaria. The result, showing that the fossils belong to Homo sapiens instead of Neanderthal, indicates that modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought.source
• 2020May 15 – Researchers announce a 2.5 cm millipede fossil belonging to the Kampecaris genus, discovered on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, is the world's oldest-known land animal, which lived 425 million years ago in the Silurian period.source
• 2020May 30 – The first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2 (initially scheduled for May 27 but delayed due to weather) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first crewed spacecraft to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.source
• 2020June 2 – A US$5 billion class action lawsuit is filed against Alphabet Inc. and Google, alleging the company violates users' right to privacy by tracking them in Chrome's incognito mode.source
• 2020June 3 – SpaceX successfully launches and deploys 60 Starlink satellites into a low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit to 482.source
• 2020July 30 – NASA successfully launches its Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for return to Earth. The mission includes technology demonstrations to prepare for future human missions.source
• 2020September 2 – Intel introduces a new logo and its slogan "What's inside has never mattered more.", which was later changed to "Do something wonderful.".source
• 2020September 14 – The Royal Astronomical Society announces the detection of phosphine in Venus' atmosphere, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.source
• 2020September 14 – The first discovery of the perfectly preserved remains of a cave bear, believed to be 22,000 to 39,500 years old (Late Pleistocene), is made in Lyakhovsky Islands, Siberia in the thawing permafrost.source
• 2020October 20 – NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touches down on Bennu, becoming the agency's first probe to retrieve samples from an asteroid, with its cargo later successfully returning to Earth on September 24, 2023.source
• 2020October 26 – NASA confirms the existence of molecular water on the sunlit side of the Moon, near Clavius crater, at concentrations of up to 412 parts per million.source
• 2020November 15 – NASA and SpaceX launch the SpaceX Crew-1 mission from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A to the ISS, the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon capsule.source
• 2020November 19 – The PlayStation 5 is released worldwide.'source
• 2020November 30 – Protein folding, one of the biggest mysteries in biology, is solved by AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence algorithm developed by DeepMind.source
• 2020December 1 – The Arecibo Telescope of the Arecibo Observatory collapses, just weeks after the announcement of its planned demolition.source
• 2020December 21 – A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.source
• 2021February 9 – The UAE's uncrewed Hope spacecraft becomes the first Arabian mission successfully to enter orbit around Mars.source
• 2021February 18 – NASA's Mars 2020 mission (containing the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone) lands on Mars at Jezero Crater, after seven months of travel.source
• 2021April 15 – Scientists announce they successfully injected human stem cells into the embryos of monkeys, creating chimera-embryos.source
• 2021April 19 – NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Mars 2020 mission, performs the first powered flight on another planet in history.source
• 2021April 22 – World leaders mark Earth Day by hosting a virtual summit on climate change, during which more ambitious targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions are proposed, including a 40% cut by 2030 for the United States.source
• 2021April 29 – The China National Space Administration launches the first module of its Tiangong space station, named Tianhe, beginning a two-year effort to build the station in orbit.source
• 2021May 14 – The China National Space Administration lands its Zhurong rover at Utopia Planitia on Mars, making China the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the planet and only the second to land a rover.source
• 2021May 26 – Shell becomes the first company to be legally mandated to align its carbon emissions with the Paris climate accord, following a landmark court ruling in the Netherlands.source
• 2021June 7 – The Juno spacecraft performs its only flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the first flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in over 20 years.source
• 2021June 10 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from Canada, Greenland, the North Pole, and the Russian Far East.source
• 2021June 17 – The China National Space Administration sends its first three astronauts to occupy the Tiangong Space Station, the country's first space station.source
• 2021July 19 – Blue Origin successfully conducts its first human test flight, with a reusable New Shepard rocket delivering four crew members into space including its founder Jeff Bezos.source
• 2021July 28 – The first direct observation of light from behind a black hole is reported, confirming Einstein's theory of general relativity.source
• 2021July 29 – Roscosmos' Nauka laboratory docks with the International Space Station following a protracted seventeen-year development and launch on 21 July. Hours after docking, a malfunction of its thrusters causes a temporary loss of control of the station, spinning it up to 45 degrees from its normal orbital attitude.source
• 2021August 30 – The UN Environment Programme announces that leaded petrol in road vehicles has been phased out globally, a hundred years after its introduction.source
• 2021September 16 – Inspiration4, launched by SpaceX, becomes the first all-civilian private spaceflight, carrying a four-person crew on a three-day orbit of the Earth. Sian Proctor becomes first female commercial astronaut spaceship pilot and Hayley Arceneaux becomes first astronaut with a prosthesis.source
• 2021October 16 – The Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids.source
• 2021November 16 – Russia draws international condemnation following an anti-satellite weapon test that creates a cloud of space debris, threatening the International Space Station.source
• 2021November 24 – NASA launches the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first attempt to deflect an asteroid for the purpose of learning how to protect Earth.source
• 2021December 25 – NASA, ESA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute launch the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope.source
• 2022February 9 – The biggest breakthrough in fusion energy since 1997 is reported at the Joint European Torus in Oxford, the UK, with 59 megajoules produced over five seconds (11 megawatts of power), more than double the previous record.source
• 2022February 27 – European nations ban Russian flights in their airspace.source
• 2022February 28 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the second part of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change. It concludes that many impacts are on the verge of becoming "irreversible".source
• 2022March 1 – World Athletics bans both Russia and Belarus from competing in all of its events.source
• 2022April 4 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the third and final part of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change, warning that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F).source
• 2022April 6 – The first known dinosaur fossil linked to the very day of the Chicxulub impact is reported by palaeontologists.source
• 2022April 20 – A European Southern Observatory team announce the discovery of micronovae, a new type of exploding star.source
• 2022April 22 – The Large Hadron Collider recommences full operations, three years after being shut down for upgrades.source
• 2022May 12 – The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration reveals its first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.source
• 2022July 11 – The first operational image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, is revealed to the public.source
• 2022November 16 – NASA launches Artemis 1, the first uncrewed mission of its Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever to reach orbit. The onboard Orion capsule orbits the Moon before returning to Earth, as a demonstration of planned human missions.source
• 2022November 30 – OpenAI releases ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot able to answer questions and write essays.source
• 2022December 19 – At the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), nearly 200 countries agree a landmark deal to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030.source
• 2023March 20 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the synthesis report of its Sixth Assessment Report on climate change.source
• 2023April 20 – SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time in a test flight from Texas. It explodes four minutes after launch.source
• 2023May 14 – The 49th G7 summit takes place in Hiroshima, Japan. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Japan on the second day of the summit.source
• 2023August 23 – India's Chandrayaan-3 becomes the first spacecraft to land near the south pole of the Moon, carrying a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan.source
• 2023September 2 – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches Aditya-L1, India's first solar observation mission.source
• 2023October 11 – ExxonMobil announces it will acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for US$65 billion, the first of two major energy industry acquisitions of the month. The second occurs less than two weeks later on 23 October, where Hess announces it will be acquired by Chevron for $50 billion.source
• 2023November 17 – The global average temperature temporarily exceeds 2 °C above the pre-industrial average for the first time in recorded history.source
• 2023December 6 – Google DeepMind releases the Gemini Language Model. Gemini will act as a foundational model integrated into Google's existing tools, including Search and Bard.source
• 2024January 19 – Japan becomes the 5th country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, with its SLIM mission.source
• 2024April 8 – A total solar eclipse is visible across North America.source
• 2024June 5 – Starliner Crewed Flight Test launches atop an Atlas V rocket to the ISS.source
• 2024September 12 – The first commercial spacewalk is conducted by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, which also includes the highest altitude orbit by a human crew since the Apollo program.source
• 2024October 12 – The long-period comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), described as the "comet of the century", makes its closest approach to Earth.source
• 2024October 13 – SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.source
• 2024October 14 – The Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.source
• 2024November 15 – The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) Is rediscovered in the Elba Protected Area of Southeast Egypt, 5,000 years after the species was believed to have been extirpated from the region.source
• 2024November 21 – Researchers using the Very Large Telescope announce the first-ever "close-up" image of a star outside the Milky Way Galaxy, WOH G64.source
• 2024December 24 – The Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles), becoming the closest and first man-made object to approach and "touch" the Sun.source
• 2025January 1 – The first versions of the Popeye and Tintin characters have entered the Public domain.source
• 2025January 13 – C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), a non-periodic comet, reaches perihelion, and is dubbed The Great Comet of 2025.source
• 2025January 16 – Blue Origin successfully launches its heavy-lift launch vehicle, New Glenn, on its first attempt, though fails to land its first stage booster as intended.source
• 2025March 2 – Firefly Aerospace becomes the first commercial company to successfully land on the Moon with no technical issues, with its Blue Ghost Mission 1.source
• 2025March 8–17 – The 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games are held in Turin, Italy.source
• 2025April 1 – Fram2 launches aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, becoming the first crewed spaceflight to enter a polar retrograde orbit.source
• 2025April 7 – Colossal Biosciences showcases three grey wolves that are genetically modified to exhibit the characteristics of the dire wolf.source
• 2025June 25 – The Axiom Mission 4 is launched. The mission involves four astronauts, including the first astronauts from Poland (Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski) and India (Shubhanshu Shukla) since the end of the Cold War.source
• 2025July 23 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules that countries can sue each other over historical emissions of greenhouse gases and the effects of climate change.source
• 2025August 7–17 – The 2025 World Games are held in Chengdu, China.source
• 2025October 14 – Microsoft ends support for Windows 10 that started in 2015.source
• 2025November 6 – Khaled El-Enany is elected the new Director-General of UNESCO.source
• 2025November 13 – The New Glenn rocket booster lands for the first time.source
• 2025December 20 – German engineer Michaela Benthaus becomes the first wheelchair user to travel into space, aboard the Blue Origin NS-37.source