Why 2021 was the weirdest year in space

Was 2021 the kookiest year ever in space? With leaky toilets, ships exploding on the pad, rockets falling from the sky, and Captain Kirk taking a ride up the gravity well, Gizmodo says yes.

With space stations performing impromptu backflips, rockets careening out of control, billionaires going into space like they just don't care, and space junk threatening to cause disaster nearly every week, 2021 will go down as one of the more memorable years in space.

The chaos kinda makes sense. Rocket launches are getting cheaper by the minute, which is creating unprecedented opportunities for us to do increasingly weird and reckless things in space. 2021 was likely the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we can expect later this decade. With that said, here's our review of the weirdest year in space—at least so far.

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Image: NASA/CSA