Do 2019 expeditions have transmission problems?
In general, there was no single, year-wide failure of communications across all expeditions launched in 2019. Public records and mission updates indicate that transmission issues in 2019 were largely isolated incidents tied to specific missions or to routine ground- or environmental-related outages, rather than a systemic problem with all expeditions that year.
Defining what counts as a 2019 expedition
To understand the question, it helps to clarify what is meant by “2019 expeditions.” In spaceflight and exploration, expeditions can refer to human spaceflight missions to the International Space Station (ISS), robotic interplanetary or deep-space probes operating in or around 2019, or major field or oceanographic/archaeological expeditions that are publicly referred to as “expeditions” in that year. This article focuses on spaceflight and space-related expeditions, where transmission (telemetry) reliability is a core metric, but also notes a well-known outlier from the year in a Mars rover case.
What the record shows about 2019 transmission reliability
Below are representative categories of transmission performance that were observed or publicly documented for expeditions active in 2019. The aim is to illustrate typical patterns rather than claim universal experiences for every mission.
- Most ISS expeditions (human spaceflight to the International Space Station) maintained reliable two-way communications with ground control via the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) network, with routine ground-system maintenance causing only brief, scheduled outages.
- Occasional ground-segment outages and scheduling windows led to short gaps in contact for some missions, but these gaps were planned or promptly recovered from and did not indicate a systemic failure of the mission’s communication system.
- Some deep-space and robotic missions reported temporary data gaps due to on-board hardware/software hiccups or transient anomalies on the spacecraft. In these cases, teams typically diagnosed the issue, reset or reconfigured subsystems, and restored normal communications without mission-wide consequences.
- A notable Earth-to-Mars context in 2019 involved the ongoing status of Mars missions near dust/weather events and solar conditions, which can reduce link availability and data rates. These factors are expected in interplanetary missions and are managed with scheduling, autonomous operations, and fault-tolerant communication practices.
Concluding paragraph: While 2019 did include transmission challenges tied to routine ground maintenance, environmental factors, and occasional spacecraft-level glitches, there was no public evidence of a broad, year-long transmission breakdown affecting all expeditions launched in 2019. Instead, mission teams relied on established redundancy, ground-based assets, and contingency procedures to maintain data flow.
Case study: the Opportunity rover and the 2019 milestone
The Opportunity Mars rover provides a concrete example of how transmission issues can manifest in practice. A global dust storm in 2018 effectively blocked sunlight and degraded the rover’s power and ability to transmit signals. In 2019, NASA declared Opportunity’s mission complete after its last contact in 2018 and extended attempts to re-establish communication into early 2019. This case illustrates a mission-wide cessation of transmission rather than a recurring problem across multiple 2019 expeditions. While not representative of all expeditions, it remains a notable 2019 reference point for how transmission problems can end a mission rather than persist across a year.
What this means for future expeditions
The 2019 experience underscores several recurring themes in mission planning and risk management for transmissions. Redundancy in communication pathways, robust on-board fault management, scheduled maintenance windows, and proactive ground support all help mitigate the risk of data-loss or contact gaps. For future expeditions, agencies continue to invest in higher-rate links, autonomous fault recovery, and more resilient ground networks to minimize the chance that a temporary hiccup becomes a mission-critical problem.
Summary
Across 2019, there was no widespread transmission breakdown affecting all expeditions launched that year. Reports indicate that while isolated issues occurred—whether due to ground-system maintenance, environmental factors, or occasional spacecraft glitches—most missions maintained reliable communications with standard contingencies in place. The Opportunity rover’s 2019 status serves as a cautionary example of how a mission can end transmission entirely due to an environmental event rather than a continuing, systemic problem within the year. Overall, 2019 highlights the resilience and redundancy of modern mission design, rather than a universal transmission failure.
