This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first rocket to reach space, and eight decades of advancements in rocketry that have extended our reach across the solar system, from low-Earth orbit to the edge of interstellar space.
Building on last year’s momentum, 2024 also is shaping up to be another record year in spaceflight. The schedule already is packed with new launches and missions, including America’s return to the Moon. Here’s a look at a few things getting ready to fly in 2024.
🚀 NASA plans to launch humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Artemis II will send four astronauts on a 10-day lunar flyby in November.
🚀 The Moon will host visits from over 10 missions, including landers and rovers such as JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, Astrobiotic Technology’s Peregrine lander, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 as a part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, and Pakistan’s ICECUBE-Q delivered by China’s Chang’e 6 sample-return mission.
🚀 Asteroids are another hot destination this year. ESA’s Hera mission will visit a pair of asteroids, one of which NASA successfully smashed into in 2022. The mining company AstroForge also is planning to launch a mission this year that’s headed to an asteroid, though the company won’t say which one.
🚀 United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket will make its long-awaited launch on Jan. 8, bringing payloads like the Peregrine lander into space.
🚀 The Vulcan Centaur also will launch NASA and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser—a reusable spacecraft that will deliver cargo to the ISS—on its first flight.
🚀 After years of delays, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket could be headed for the skies as soon as August. In its debut flight, the reusable rocket will carry a NASA mission that’s destined for Mars.
🚀 SpaceX’s Starship will undergo another test launch once the company receives clearance from the FAA. The agency is still overseeing an investigation of the rocket’s second flight, which ended in an explosion eight minutes after takeoff.
🚀 SpaceX is aiming to launch 144 missions in 2024, up from last year’s 98 launches.
🚀 ESA’s Ariane 6 rocket is scheduled to have its first launch in the summer. It will bring small payloads into space. If successful, ESA plans to launch a second by year’s end.
🚀 Mid-April could see the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, a reusable capsule that will bring crew to the ISS.
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IMAGERY INTERLUDE
ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket booster and second stage undergo tests in Florida. The Vulcan, scheduled to launch on Jan. 8, is the first new rocket design in 18 years for ULA, a venture of Lockheed and Boeing.
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SPACE DEBRIS
The first satellite has been produced for China’s G60 Starlink constellation. It will be one of 12,000 that China plans to use for a communications network in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX is launching faster and faster. It recently launched two missions within three hours.
X-37B, the US military’s mysterious spacecraft, is back in space. The launch follows shortly after the liftoff of China’s own mysterious space plane.
Rough seas caused SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster to tip over as it was shuttled back to land after landing on a boat. The damages have rendered the booster unusable.
Cooperation on the ISS between the US and Russia isn’t over. Roscosmos and NASA have agreed to continue launching each other’s astronauts through 2025.
Starlink is coming for your phone. SpaceX just launched the first Starlink satellites that will be able to communicate directly with smartphones.
This week’s Space Business newsletter was authored by science writer and photographer Mara Johnson-Groh, and edited by Heather Landy.
Last week: 2023 Milestones
This was issue 210 of our newsletter. Hope your week is out of this world! Send launch predictions, tips, and informed opinions to talk@qz.com.