Space Exploration
- February 1 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts on board.
- June 2 – The first European Mars mission Mars Express launched.
- September 27 – The first European lunar mission Smart 1 launched.
- October 15 – The People's Republic of China launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned space mission.
- December 25 – Mars Express enters orbit around Mars. Its lander, Beagle 2 was to land on the surface but is lost (presumed crashed).
Read more about this topic: 2003 In Science
Famous quotes containing the words space and/or exploration:
“Here were poor streets where faded gentility essayed with scanty space and shipwrecked means to make its last feeble stand, but tax-gatherer and creditor came there as elsewhere, and the poverty that yet faintly struggled was hardly less squalid and manifest than that which had long ago submitted and given up the game.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“For women who do not love us, as for the “disappeared”, knowing that we no longer have any hope does not prevent us form continuing to wait. We live on our guard, on watch; women whose son has gone asea on a dangerous exploration imagine at any minute, although it has long been certain that he has perished, that he will enter, miraculously saved, and healthy.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)