From Elon Musk's giant Starship rocket to India's spectacular moon landing, 2023 was an epic year in space

• This year, the world made several major achievements in the race to space.
• They included SpaceX sending its most powerful rocket to space and India reaching the moon.

Every year, space agencies and private companies move closer to making us a multi-planetary species, breaking barriers along the way.

This year was no exception. 2023 saw groundbreaking rocket launches, unprecedented lunar missions, and remarkable scientific discoveries.

Ahead of the new year, here's everything you need to know to catch up.

1. SpaceX's Starship soared toward space twice – and blew up both times

One of the most long-awaited spaceflight events of the decade took place in 2023, after SpaceX launched its gargantuan Starship mega-rocket in its fully-stacked form for the first time.

Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Standing at almost 400ft, it is designed to be a workhorse to ferry humans and cargo to and from Mars. It could also play a crucial role in NASA's return to the moon.

Elon Musk's SpaceX had previously shown it could fly the Starship spaceship on its own. But the company had never attempted to launch it on top of its Super Heavy booster — a necessary step to bring the spaceship to outer space.

That seal was broken this year, twice. The fully stacked mega-rocket took its maiden flight on April 21.

The flight, in some measure, was a success. The rocket cleared the launchpad and flew for a few minutes. But it eventually burst into flames after tumbling out of control. It later came to light that Starship's powerful engines had also blown a crater in its concrete launchpad.

Undeterred, SpaceX modified the rocket and flew again on November 18. This time, the spacecraft successfully separated and flew into space, though it burst again within seconds of reaching its apex.

2. Private space companies made waves

It was a big year for other spaceflight companies as well.

Relativity Space showed the capability of its monstrous 3D printers by launching and flying a rocket that was made of 85% printed materials. Terran 1 successfully separated from its first stage but didn't quite make it to orbit.

The company now aims to develop an even bigger rocket, called Terran R, in a bid to beat Musk to Mars. While Relativity will keep pushing its rocket development, its main purpose is to demonstrate the power of its 3D printers, which could one day be used to create custom equipment for Martian settlers, the company CEO Tim Ellis previously told Business Insider.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin got a much-needed vote of confidence from NASA. In May, it became the second private company, after SpaceX, to land the agency's coveted contract to develop tech to land astronauts on the moon. The company was awarded $3.4 billion.

The firm was also awarded the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) NASA contract, which means New Glenn, a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin, could fly a research payload to Mars on its first flight.

SpaceX also beat a record that it had set only last year.

By October, the company had launched 74 orbital missions, up from its previous record of 62 in 2022.

The firm aims to launch 100 flights by the end of 2023, Bill Gerstenmaier, a senior SpaceX official, said on October 18 during a hearing of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Space and Science, per Space.com.

He added that next year it would aim for 12 flights per month, or a mission every three days or less, per Space.com.

3. China got serious about the moon

China once again demonstrated its precise spaceflight engineering capabilities, reporting it had reached orbit with a rocket fueled with methalox, a composite liquid fuel of methane and oxygen, in July.

In doing so, the country beat several US companies trying to get methalox-fueled rockets to orbit, including SpaceX and Blue Origin.

The country this year continued to set aggressive timelines for its space program, announcing it could build a space station on the moon within five years, and put boots on lunar soil by 2030.

4. Russia fell behind on its lunar ambitions

Meanwhile, Russia's lunar aspirations were dealt a blow this year.

Roscosmos attempted to beat nations like China, the USA, Japan, and India by aiming to be the first to land a robotic mission near the south pole of the moon, a strategically important site for upcoming lunar missions.

The nation was attempting to revive its long-dormant lunar program, which hadn't landed on the moon since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But after a successful launch in August, Roscosmos's Luna-25 probe broke contact with Earth and spun out of control before crashing into the moon.

5. Where Russia failed, India thrived — a step that puts them in pole position in the space race

India surprised the world in August when it became the first nation to land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, and only the fourth country to ever land on the moon.

Chandrayaan-3's dog-sized rover, released by the spacecraft a few days after it landed, collected crucial information about the lunar soil before shutting down in September.

"It definitely puts them on the international stage as an emerging space power," Robert Braun, head of space exploration at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, previously told Business Insider.

6. Europe tried to catch up

The UK attempted the first launch from British soil from its new Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay in January. But celebrations were cut short when Virgin Orbit's rocket failed to reach orbit. This was a blow to the spaceport as Virgin Orbit, its only listed customer, closed down shortly after.

This misfire is a symptom of a bigger issue at stake. The European Space Agency's (ESA's) independent access to space has been shrinking steadily.

ESA has been facing fire for the delay in its heavy-lift Ariane 6 development and the recent failures of its newest rocket, Vega-C. This has left the European agency in an "acute launcher crisis" after the retirement of Ariane 5 in July, ESA head Josef Aschbacher said.

The UK's newly-developed spaceports are part of a bigger push to expand commercial launching capability in the area. European countries have been investing in building continental spaceports to complement ESA's launchpad in French Guiana. The first EU mainland spaceport was inaugurated in Sweden's Arctic Circle in January. An orbital spaceport was opened in Andøya, Norway, in November.

In announcing the Swedish spaceport, EU president Ursula van der Leyen foreshadowed a "change to the way we 'do space' in Europe," promising more support for small space firms and private investors.

Europe's private spaceflight ambitions did get a welcome boost in October when the bloc's first fully private rocket, a single-stage rocket called Miura-1 designed by Spanish firm PLDSpace, took its first flight.

The rocket failed to reach orbit but provided precious data that the firm hopes will help them push the development of its two-stage reusable rocket Muira-5, which could launch as early as 2025, Space.com reported.