Mir, Mars, meteors highlight year in space

Posted by tourdemars to Mars Odyssey at December 29, 2001 12:00 PM

One space station drops into the ocean and another rises in the sky. A probe lands on an asteroid while a second bids farewell from deep space. A tourist goes into orbit. A NASA chief calls it quits. These are just some of the big stories that came from the heavens in the year 2001, which witnessed a dramatic expansion in our scientific understanding and a sobering contraction in space funding.