2010: The first successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket by the private company SpaceX from Cape Canaveral. This inaugural flight successfully placed a test version of the Dragon capsule into orbit. Although this first model did not yet attempt to return to Earth, it proved the reliability of the "Falcon" architecture and laid the foundations for future reusable launchers. This breakthrough radically transformed the space economy, enabling massive deployments such as the Starlink constellation and facilitating access to the International Space Station (ISS).

2002: Astronomers Michael Brown and Chadwick Trujillo (Caltech) discover (50000) Quaoar, a massive trans-Neptunian object (TNO) located in the Kuiper Belt. With a diameter estimated at the time to be around 1,250 km, Quaoar was the largest body discovered in the Solar System since Pluto in 1930. This discovery, made using the Samuel Oschin telescope at the Palomar Observatory, marked the beginning of a series of finds of giant objects (such as Eris and Haumea) that led the International Astronomical Union to create the category of dwarf planets in 2006.

Image credits : Wyattmars