11 months in Space. The Space Industry in 2024

The space industry 2024 shows promisingly extraordinary milestones. Here is what we have experienced, how many light year ahead are we to build on our quest to keep returning in space. Most times the year ends after the Q3 results. The rest in pure preparation for years to come and  aiming to fulfil the achievements this year. In a space exciting year, the Q3 results were good everywhere. In case this was fulfilled people will not even question the end-of-the-year results. Here are some important results from this year space missions that brought us closer to space and made us experience space closer and differently this time. So far, the year has witnessed ongoing space exploration at the ISS, launch of SpaceX mission to have first city on Mars, NASA Europa clippers launch, Moon missions and new advancements from around the world.

In this blog you will read about

1)SpaceX and Starlink milestones from the year

2)Space Neuigkeiten from NASA, ESA, the Chinese space program and the ISS

3)What we might have missed - Voyager, Exoworlds

4)What to expect- Moon missions, Preparation for Mars, Asteroid exploration, Connecting the world,

SpaceX way ahead in space

Building on the the extraordinary achievements of SpaceX is working on a next generation of fully reusable launch vehicles that will be the most powerful ever built, capable of carrying humans to Mars and other destinations in the solar system.

When billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis took a look outside of their Crew Dragon capsule, the feat was less daring than the first spacewalks six decades ago.

In March 1965, in the midst of the Cold War space race, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov climbed through the airlock of his Voskhod-2 capsule and floated in free fall, tethered to his spacecraft by only a skinny umbilical. Three months later, when NASA astronaut Ed White ventured out of the Gemini IV capsule, NASA added a twist: He initially maneuvered by firing a handheld “zip gun” full of pressurized oxygen, stretching the umbilical to nearly its full 8-meter length.

By contrast, Isaacman performed what those in the spaceflight business call a “stand-up EVA.” He emerged through the hatch opening normally reserved for docking to the International Space Station,  while a camera on the hatch captured the scene for a live audience on X. He paused for a few moments to take in the view over New Zealand, then gripped one of the “skywalker” rails at the hatch opening. He slowly rotated his free arm back and forth, then switched to the other arm and also raised his legs. It all took about 10 minutes, and then Isaacman traded places with Gillis, who ran through a nearly identical set of exercises. Neither of them exited Dragon entirely, hence the distinction of a “stand-up” EVA.

For sure, it was “prudent” not to have the crew float outside the capsule, says veteran spacewalker Tom Jones, a former NASA astronaut. It was the first SpaceX-run EVA, and the first time the suits shielded humans against the environment of space. Jones, who is not affiliated with SpaceX and Polaris Dawn, expects this will be the first in a series of increasingly ambitious EVAs that will be conducted to demonstrate SpaceX’s suit and procedures.

He also expects the mission to have impacts beyond SpaceX: “They’re rebuilding Gemini, but that’s the first step in a process where commercial companies will one day be maintaining private space stations and eventually doing lunar EVAs.”

Based on his own spacewalks from shuttle orbiters, Jones believes such tasks will require SpaceX to at some point develop a second, bulkier EVA suit, similar to the ones that astronauts don today to make repairs to ISS. Those suits have fibreglass and aluminium upper torsos “that you can attach hard things to, like cameras and power tools,” he says, and include life support backpack instead oxygen umbilical so astronauts can “travel farther without having the restraint from the umbilical.

More Starlink Launches

In 2024 SpaceX has conducted more than 104 launches by October 24, 2024, launched a total of 1,565 Starlink satellites in 2024 delivering internet to almost the entire Earth, including hard to reach regions and regions with suspended connectivity due to environmental or political conditions.

Total Launches Including Partners:

SpaceX's overall launch count in 2024 includes not just Starlink but also other missions for various partners. Here's a summary: SpaceX has conducted more than 104 launches by October 24, 2024, with 100 being Falcon 9, two Falcon Heavy, and three Starships.

January:

  - A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink satellites on January 2, 2024, including the first six satellites with direct-to-cellular (DtC) capability.

February:

  - SpaceX successfully launched Starlink Group 6-39, 6-40, 7-13, 7-14, and 7-15 from both Florida and California.

March:

  - Launches included Starlink Group 6-42, 6-43, 6-44, 6-45, 6-46, and 7-16, 7-17.

April:

  - SpaceX conducted multiple Starlink launches, including missions like Group 6-55.

May:

  - A Falcon 9 rocket delivered 20 more Starlink satellites on May 28, 2024.

June:

  - Launches included Group 8-5, 8-8, 9-1, 9-2, 10-1, 10-2, 10-3.

July:

  - Two back-to-back launches on July 28, one from Florida with 23 satellites and another from California with 21 satellites, including 13 Direct to Cell satellites.

August:

  - Starlink Group 8-3, 8-6, 8-10, 10-5, 10-6, 10-7, and 11-1 were launched.

October:

  - Starlink Group 6-55 was launched on October 26, 2024.

November: Starlink Group 9-10, Group 6-69, Group 9-11, Group 6-68

SpaceX aims to increase its launch rate to about 12 flights per month, targeting a total of approximately 144 launches in 2024. Although not all these launches are specified as Starlink missions, Starlink constitutes a major part of their launch schedule due to the ongoing expansion of the constellation.

Beyond the above, SpaceX has successfully Brough astronauts to and from the international Space station as well as provided full refill of scientific needs that astronauts need on the station. Recently, an important milestone was started as Falcon Heavy has successfully launched Europa Clipper which is the largest spacecraft NASA has developed for a planetary mission with solar arrays spanning more than 100 feet (~30 meters) when deployed and weighing nearly 13,000 pounds (6,000 kilograms) at launch. Powered by 24 engines, Europa Clipper will make nearly 50 flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, surveying for conditions suitable to support life. Scientists predict a salty ocean lies beneath Europa’s icy surface which has more water than Earth’s oceans combined. It will take five years to reach Europa, with an anticipated arrival in 2030.

The most inspiring stays still the launches of Starships test flights with successful landings and entry into Space of the flight test 4 and 5 conducted on the October 13 when SuperHeavy was caught by the Mechazilla atop sticks for the first time, igniting comments from across the industry and way beyond outside. Eagerly anticipated next flight test of Starship is aimed to be performed as early as November 18th.

Starship in a "Steady To Go" mode at Starbase Texas, Source: Florida Today

Few amazing results from the industry (Source AIAA):

RTX Beats Q3 Expectations, Raises 2024 Outlook

RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, has reported third-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street's expectations, bolstered by robust demand in its commercial aftermarket and defense sectors. The aerospace and defense conglomerate not only surpassed the analyst consensus for earnings per share, reporting $1.45 compared to the expected $1.34, but also achieved higher-than-expected revenue of $20.1 billion against an estimated $19.84 billion. This performance led to an upward revision of RTX's full-year guidance for both adjusted sales and earnings per share.

Lockheed Martin Lifts Profit and Sales Forecasts

Lockheed Martin, another titan in the defense sector, has similarly adjusted its annual forecasts upwards, reflecting an increase in demand for military equipment amid global tensions. The company now anticipates a per-share profit of $26.65 for 2024, higher than its previous guidance, and full-year sales of $71.25 billion, slightly exceeding the earlier projection.

GE Aerospace and the Business Aviation Sector

GE Aerospace is gearing up to announce its Q3 earnings with a focus on new engine deliveries, which are anticipated to reflect a 37.8% year-over-year increase in earnings per share. Meanwhile, Honeywell's Global Business Aviation Outlook predicts stable growth in the sector, forecasting a demand for 8,500 new business aircraft valued at $280 billion over the next five years.

Innovations in Space

Chinese Space Activity: China launched three Tianping-3 radar calibration satellites, showcasing ongoing advancements and impressiveness in its space program.

Intelsat-33e Satellite Loss: Intelsat declared the Intelsat-33e satellite a total loss following an anomaly, with U.S. Space Forces tracking debris from the satellite.

Northrop Grumman's DSAT: Northrop Grumman has introduced a flying data center concept for military intelligence, enhancing real-time data processing capabilities during operations.

NASA - Europa clipper, James Web, Moon and ISS

In April 2024, NASA began, under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to create a standard for time on the Moon, it is called Coordinated Lunar Time and is expected to be completed by 2026.

Already mentioned NASA Europa Clipper to has of one of the highest significant in terms of long term Space exploration, aiming to identify Can life exist on Jupiter’s moon - Europa?

On 7 October, the Hera spacecraft was launched successfully as well. It will arrive at the asteroid Didymos in 2026 after Mars flyby, where it will study the effects of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test

The Space Variable Objects Monitor is a small X-ray telescope satellite for studying the explosions of massive stars by analysing the resulting gamma-ray bursts, developed by China National Space Administration (CNSA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the French Space Agency (CNES),launched on 22 June 2024.

European Space Agency will launch their PROBA-3 dual satellites for solar coronagraphy.

Nova-C

IM-1 Nova-C Odysseus launched on 15 February 2024 towards the Moon via Falcon 9 on a direct intercept trajectory and later landed in the south polar region of the Moon on 22 February 2024 and became the first successful private lander and the first to do so using cryogenic propellants. Though it landed successfully, one of the lander's legs broke upon landing and it tilted up on other side, 18° due to landing on a slope, but the lander survived and payloads are functioning as expected.

Just before landing, at approximately 30 m (98 ft) above the lunar surface, the Odysseus lander was planned to eject the EagleCam camera-equipped CubeSat, which would have been dropped onto the lunar surface near the lander, with an impact velocity of about 10 m/s (22 mph). However, due to complications arising from the software patch, it was decided that EagleCam would not be ejected upon landing. It was later ejected on 28 February but was partially failure as it returned all types of data, except post IM-1 landing images that were the main aim of its mission.

The lander also includes the Lunar Library that contains a version of the English Wikipedia, artworks, selections from the Internet Archive, portions of the Project Gutenberg, and more. It is projected to reside on the Moon in a readable state for billions of years.

Human spaceflight, Polaris Dawn mission, ISS

On 11 September, following the launch of Soyuz MS-26, a record breaking 19 people were simultaneously in orbit around Earth. In addition to the crew of MS-26, this included the crews of Polaris Dawn, Boe-CFT, SpaceX Crew-8, Soyuz MS-25 and Shenzhou 18.

Blue Origin's New Shepard also returned to suborbital space tourism launches with the successful NS-25 mission on 19 May. The next mission, NS-26, took successfully place on 29 August with eight crewed launch.

Space mission expansions

The space year has expanded by the successful launched of Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system operated by Arianespace and developed and produced by ArianeGroup on behalf of the European Space Agency.

Thales and Argotect to build 20 more satellites for the Italian observatory IRIDE in Space. The satellites were purchased by ESA and are adding to the Italian space station which aims earth observation, image processing, weather conditioning, protection and presence at space.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has officially started its Moonlight program, which aims to build a satellite network around the Moon to improve communication and navigation services. ESA announced the new Moonlight Lunar Communications and Navigation Services (LCNS) program on October 15, 2024.

The future propels advanced solar technologies to be able to make in space refuel easier, instead counting on the need to propellant loads in some extreme cases.

Starship is built to refuel within an hour from landing and perform another mission. The same is aimed as well for Mars and other missions. SpaceX has performed at least three flights testings of Starship in 2024, including the recent catch by the Mechazilla. By doing so, SpaceX proves the future of reusable rockets, vertical landings and Starship going to Space towards the final goal of reaching Mars in two years from now.

Starship is the heaviest, most sophisticated rocket built aimed to bring over 100 people to Mars, Moon and Earth orbit, and beyond. Falcon 9 eights 1.7 thrust at liftoff and can as well bring spacecrafts, supply and refuel to Space Stations, including a one on Mars.

What we might have missed

Launched in 1977 to fly by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012 and continues to collect data. Voyager is currently 25 billion km away from the Earth and this year NASA has restored contact and is receiving signal from outside the heliosphere. It is believed that we have received a signal from Proxima Centauri B, which promises huge hope for life in outer space. The distance between us and Centauri currently 1000 years of travel away. Is it possible to teleport ourselves? How close are we to finding intelligent life?