Russia inaugurated the far-Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome on 28 April 2016 with a traditional Soyuz-2.1a flight,[1] before expanding it for the Angara rocket family in the following years.

After many failed attempts, SpaceX began landing its Falcon 9 first stages on autonomous spaceport drone ships, edging closer to their long-stated goal of developing reusable launch vehicles.

[8][9] Human spaceflights included the return of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko in March after a yearlong mission on the ISS, the longest-ever continuous stay by astronauts at the station.

The experimental BEAM inflatable habitat was attached to the ISS on 16 April and expanded on 28 May to begin two years of on-orbit tests.

[104][105][16] In a twist of fate, one of the secondary payloads traveling with Hitomi was ChubuSat-3, a microsatellite dedicated to monitoring global warming effects and space debris.