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　　WASHINGTON— Space technology this yearreached some important goals, culminating withthe spectacular landing of a space probe on acomet, millions of kilometers from Earth. Butthere were some setbacks, too.

　　The biggest achievements of 2014 happened in the last half of the year.

　　In August, after a decade-long flight, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraftbecame the first man-made object to enter into orbit around a comet, more than 400 millionkilometers away.

　　In November, Rosetta launched a probe, named Philae, that made the first soft landing on thecomet.

　　Its rugged surface caused the probe to settle down in partial shade, but lander managerStephan Ulamec counseled patience.

　　“Our original fear that the lander would overheat is not relevant anymore," he said. "We are inthe shadow. So we can operate much longer in principle but we have to be patient and waitfor a little bit more time until we have enough solar power to reactivate Philae.”

　　Orbiting Mars

　　In September, the U.S. scientific satellite MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutionMission) entered an orbit around Mars, with the mission of learning what happened to the RedPlanet's atmosphere and water.

　　MAVEN principal investigator Bruce Jakosky says scientists now know that Mars once had amuch denser atmosphere and that it has changed significantly over the last few billion years.What they still don’t know is how and why that happened.

　　“We are trying to understand what the cause of that climate change has been, and we arelooking at the role that escape to space may have played in removing the atmosphere andchanging the atmosphere,” Jakosky said.

　　A few days later, MAVEN was joined by India’s spacecraft Mangalyaan, making India the firstnation to reach Mars' orbit successfully in the first attempt. Its mission was to developtechnologies and experience for future explorations.

　　NASA's Orion capsule

　　In December, using its largest rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, NASA conducted a nearly perfect firstlaunch and retrieval of its new space capsule Orion, designed for manned deep spaceexplorations.

　　Orion program manager Mark Geyer said it was hard to have a better day.

　　“It’s a difficult mission. It’s a tough environment to fly through," said Geyer. "It's toughobjectives that we set up for this flight. But it appears that Orion and the Delta IV Heavy werenearly flawless. Great job by the team.”

　　In the future, the Orion capsule will fly on top of a more powerful rocket, the Space LaunchSystem.

　　NASA plans to send it to circumnavigate the moon in 2018, while the first flight with astronautsis planned for 2021.

　　Setbacks for private space industry

　　The budding private space industry in the U.S. suffered two setbacks this year. In October,Orbital Sciences Corporation’s cargo rocket Antares, bound for the International Space Station,exploded soon after liftoff. Later that month, Virgin Galactic’s experimental space vehicleSpaceShip Two broke up in the middle of a test flight, killing one of the two pilots.

　　Both companies said the mishaps will not deter them from trying to develop reliablespacecraft for near orbit flights.