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21st century

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2020-2029
timeline contents

2020-2030

• Progress towards malaria elimination |

2020-2025

• America-China tensions continue in the Asia-Pacific region | • Gene therapy for deafness | • Breast tomosynthesis is in widespread use |

2020

• Microsoft ends support for Windows 7 | • Generation X is reshaping global politics | • Progress with longevity extension | • First high-altitude test flight of the SpaceX Starship | • Mercury pollution has been greatly reduced | • The PlayStation 5 is launched | • Chang'e 5 lunar exploration mission | • Great conjunction | • Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide |

2021

• The first Arabian mission to Mars | • NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars | • China's first mission to Mars | • The world's largest insect swarm re-emerges | • A prototype artificial kidney | • Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games | • The James Webb Space Telescope is launched |

2022

• The first exascale computer is deployed | • Level 3 autonomous cars go on sale in Europe | • Crossrail opens in London | • Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics | • Northeast Corridor high-speed train upgrade | • China's first space station is complete | • New Horizons completes its study of the Kuiper Belt | • The AIDA mission arrives at Didymos | • Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup | • Xi Jinping extends his presidency | • First uncrewed maiden flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) |

2023

• Croatia adopts the euro | • Jacinda Ardern resigns as Prime Minister of New Zealand | • Cyclone Freddy breaks records for duration and energy | • Turkey–Syria earthquakes kill 59,000 | • Banking crisis | • OpenAI releases GPT-4 | • Finland joins NATO | • The first integrated near-orbital flight of SpaceX's Starship | • Ending of COVID-19 as a global health emergency | • Coronation of Charles III | • Stalemate in Ukraine | • The biggest wildfires in North American history | • Titan submersible disaster | • India's Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole | • Storm Daniel becomes the deadliest Mediterranean cyclone in recorded history | • Asteroid sample return mission | • Israel–Hamas war | • IBM debuts a 1,000+ qubit quantum processor |

2024

• A pivotal year for elections | • Steamboat Willie enters the public domain | • Gemini Ultra is released by Google | • The first AI-generated news anchors on U.S. television | • Total solar eclipse across North America | • Chang'e 6 lunar sample return mission | • Euro 2024 is hosted by Germany | • Paris hosts the Summer Olympic Games | • First flight of the New Glenn reusable rocket | • Indonesia gets a new capital city | • VIPER mission to the lunar south pole | • A global agreement on plastic pollution | • The first probe to fly into the Sun's outer atmosphere |

2025-2050

• Technological unemployment is rising rapidly |

2025-2035

• All television is becoming Internet-based | • Mouse revival from cryopreservation |

2025-2030

• Many cities are banning fossil fuel-powered vehicles | • Human brain-scale simulations are becoming possible |

2025-2028

• Contact with the Voyager probes is lost |

2025

• The ITER experimental fusion reactor is switched on | • Kivalina is being inundated | • Sample return mission to Kamo'oalewa | • First crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft | • BepiColombo arrives in orbit around Mercury | • Direct flights from Sydney to London and New York |

2026-2031

• The Martian Moons Exploration probe collects and returns samples |

2026-2030

• The PLATO observatory is operational |

2026

• A synthetic human genome is completed | • The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) is operational | • The International Linear Collider is completed | • Russia debuts its first reusable rocket | • Italy hosts the Winter Olympics | • Construction of the Sagrada Família is complete | • Robotic hands matching human capabilities | • The FIFA World Cup is hosted jointly in Canada, Mexico and the United States | • United States Semiquincentennial | • Mars Science Laboratory is shutting down | • Completion of the Stad Ship Tunnel | • A quantum computer with 10,000+ qubits | • 50TB hard drives |

2027

• Artemis III crewed mission to the lunar surface | • The EU ends all energy imports from Russia | • Light-duty hydrogen fuel cell vehicles reach 1 million in annual sales | • Tokyo and Nagoya are connected by high-speed maglev | • The Venera-D mission arrives at Venus | • Launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope | • The asteroid 1999 AN10 makes a close approach | • The Square Kilometre Array begins science operations | • User-replaceable batteries are mandated in the EU | • 2D barcodes are ubiquitous in retail | • The autopsy report for Elvis Presley is made public | • Opening of the New Central Polish Airport | • Bougainville becomes an independent country | • Completion of the Australia–ASEAN Power Link |

2028-2033

• mRNA-based vaccines for cancer and heart disease |

2028-2031

• VERITAS mission to Venus |

2028-2030

• The Orbital Reef is operational |

2028

• China's economy surpasses that of the U.S. | • One-third of new cars are electric | • Medical marijuana is legal in the majority of countries | • Completion of the Lunar Gateway | • Launch of the European ATHENA X-ray observatory | • China builds the world's largest particle accelerator | • British newspapers are going out of circulation | • Launch of the Comet Interceptor | • NEO Surveyor hunts for potentially hazardous asteroids | • Completion of the Brenner Base Tunnel | • 1.4 nm nodes begin mass production | • Delhi becomes the most populous city in the world | • Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympic Games | • Total solar eclipse in Australia and New Zealand | • Resurrection of several extinct species has been achieved | • The Type 26 Global Combat Ship enters service | • The European Extremely Large Telescope is operational | • The final Avatar movie is released |

2029-2032

• DAVINCI+ mission to Venus |

2029

• Human-like AI is a reality | • Romania adopts the euro | • Increased automation of banking | • Close approach of the near-Earth asteroid Apophis | • Mass application of gene drives on mosquitoes | • 40 MW floating wind turbines | • Finland bans coal for energy use | • Madagascar's radiated tortoise is extinct in the wild | • Expansion of London's Heathrow Airport | • NASA's Psyche spacecraft makes orbital insertion | • Launch of the ARIEL spacecraft | • The Giant Magellan Telescope is fully operational | • Jupiter's Great Red Spot is disappearing | • The wreck of the Titanic has decomposed | • Starlab is fully operational | • The number of satellites in Earth orbit has grown exponentially |

2030-2039 »