President Obama's provided no budget for Constellation. Instead commercial development of manned spacecraft to provide continued American access to the International Space Station under the COTS and CCDev programs would be encouraged. NASA would instead devote itself to development of propulsion, refuelling, and long-duration manned flight technologies needed for an eventual manned expedition to Mars.

First test of the Airborne Laser against a ballistic rocket in flight. The Terrier Black Brant unguided sounding rocket was destroyed in flight off California. This target was used as a low-cost vehicle representative of foreign solid-propellant short-range missiles.

Solar Dynamics Observatory. The Centaur AV-021 upper stage moved from an initial 175 km x 3706 km x 28.7 deg parking orbit to a 2480 km x 35369 km x 28.6 deg transfer orbitand then released the satellite, which used its own R4D thruster to reach geosynchronous orbit.

First test of the Airborne Laser against a foreign-technology missile target. The ABL destroyed the Scud liquid-fueled short-range ballistic missile launched from a mobile platform at sea. The entire engagement, including atmospheric compensation for the high-energy laser while the ballistic missile's rocket motor was still firing, occurred less than one minute from target launch.

The booster accelerated the passive scramjet to Mach 6 and sustained Mach 6 +.05 and dynamic pressure (80 + 35 kPa) for seven seconds. These conditions were required for a stable ignition of an active scramjet engine combustor module, planned in the flight of ATV-D2.

ISS EO-23. The crew first attempted to depart the ISS on 24 September. However the latches between the Soyuz and the station failed to release. Return to earth the next day was successful, with undocking at 02:03 GMT; deorbit burn at 04:31 GMT; and landing in Kazakhstan at 05:23 GMT.

Solar sail test vehicle. Released in solar orbit 0.72 AU x 1.07 AU x 2.0 deg. Deployed sail by 11 June, and acceleration due to the pressure of the light from the sun was as expected. Flyby of Venus at 80,000 km distance at 07:39 GMT on 8 December 2010 returned images of sail with crescent Vensu in the background.

First Block IIF Global Positioning System satellite. Supported the L1M and L2M military GPS channels, the L2C civilian channel and a new L5 civilian channel. Also included a nuclear explosion detection system. The IIF system replaces earlier Block I, Block II, and IIA series built by Rockwell/Seal Beach (now part of Boeing) and Block IIR satellites built by Lockheed Martin/Valley Forge.

ISS EO-24 crew. The return to earth was reported advanced four days to avoid coinciding with an OSCE conference in Kazakhstan. The crew undocked from the Rassvet module of the ISS at 01:23 GMT on 26 November 2010. There was a leak in the descent module, but ground controllers concluded the return to earth could be conducted safely. The Soyuz made its deorbit burn at 03:55 GMT and landed safely in Kazakhstan at 04:46 GMT.

First docking attempt with the ISS on 2 July aborted due to radio interference. Successfully docked with the ISS at the Zvezda module on 4 July at 16:17 GMT. Undocked from the Zvezda module of the ISS at 11:21 GMT on 31 August 2010. Conducted experiments in free flight until deorbited at 12:13 GMT on 6 September.

First USAF Advanced EHF communications satellite. Placed in an initial 221 x 50179 km x 22.2 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit by the Atlas Centaur upper stage. However the satellite's main BT-4 engine failed, meaning the secondary hydrazine thrusters were used to much more satellite raise the spacecraft to geosynchronous orbit.

T-REX Tether Technology Rocket Experiment. The 580 kg payload consisted of three parts: 'mother' and 'daughter' spacecraft connected by a 300-meter-long electrodynamic tether; and the small Tethered Space Robot connected to the daughter. Fell into Pacific Ocean after a ten-minute zero-G flight.

Quasi-Zenith Satellite System; carried an L-band navigation package to augment GPS and a C-band transponder for communications. Placed in an inclined geosynchronous orbit that brings nearly overhead of Japan at peak usage hours, providing a better navigation and communications signal to users which normally would have equatorial geosynchronous satellite and medium-earth-orbit navigation satellite signals interfered with by tall buildings or steep canyons.

China's second lunar orbiter, retasked to an interplanetary explorer. Entered a 119 x 8599 km lunar orbit on 1 October at 03:14 GMT. By 9 October it had maneuvered to its operational 100-km circular lunar orbit. On 9 June 2011, its lunar mission complete, it was maneuvered out of lunar orbit, and arrived at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point on 25 August 2011. It then followed the interplanetary gravitational superhighway to a 1.02 AU x 1.03 AU x 0.2 deg solar orbit, leading to a flyby of the asteroid Toutatis on 13 December 2012 at 08:30 GMT. It came within 3.2 km of the planetoid and returned detailed images.

Experiment for Northrop Grumman NovaWorks and the University of Southern California. 3U cubesat with deployable solar panels composed of a Northrop Grumman's 2-unit Mayflower Next Generation Technology Nanosat and University of Southern California's 1-unit cubesat.

ISS EO-26 crew. Docked at the Rassvet module of the ISS at 20:11 GMT on 17 December. The crew boarded Soyuz TMA-20 and undocked at 21:35 GMT on 23 May 2011. They pulled back 200 m from the station, then took comprehensive photography of the station until 22:17 as it rotated before them. After departure from the visinity of the station, the Soyuz fired its engines at 01:36 GMT on 24 May to start the descent into the atmosphere. The orbital module and service modules separated from the descent module at 02:01 GMT. The crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 02:27 GMT.