The Space Report 2024 Quarter 4: E-magazine
2024 year-end launch analysis
Despite setbacks and challenges that left some launch vehicles grounded at times, the space industry again set a record pace in 2024, sending rockets skyward at a near-daily pace. That tempo is expected to accelerate in 2025 as new market entrants including France's Ariane 6 and the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan join stalwarts such as SpaceX's Falcon-9 in sending constellations of new satellites to orbit.
2025 launch vehicle preview
More than two dozen launch vehicles could make first flights in 2025, including Chinese competitors for SpaceX's Falcon-9 and a bevy of small launchers designed for a rapid ride to low Earth orbit on short notice.
2024 year-end payload
LEO remained the top destination in 2024 as companies and countries lofted clouds of smaller satellites to the easy-to-reach orbit. Article provides data on payload by sector, loft rate by mass, deployment by orbit, etc.
Nations in Space
The rise of SmallSats has provided opportunities for smaller nations to establish space programs and enter the space market. While frequency is climbing, the number of space nations in active orbit has held steady because first-launch satellites often have short orbit times.
SPACE INVESTMENT ANALYSIS
Annual and fourth-quarter assessment of stock market performance of select space companies.
QUILTY SPACE
Annual and fourth-quarter merger and acquisition activity.
New Gen students, universities find new onramps to the workforce pipeline
The space industry is expanding and privatizing at a rate never seen before. This article looks at the changing needs of aerospace education and how agencies, companies and universities are building the school-to-work pipeline. Internships once focused on large companies, but with increasing entrepreneurship in space, students increasingly are looking to join smaller companies. With the booming space industry, the number of aerospace majors is also outpacing other engineering disciplines at multiple universities.
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman among those quoted. Interview with Mel Stricklan requested.
DoC transitions into role of providing space situational awareness
With as many as 61,791 commercial satellites licensed for launch in the next decade and more than 13,300 satellites in orbit, the Department of Commerce is stepping into the role of space traffic cop at rush hour. With the help of a bevy of space situational awareness contractors and a long history tracking weather across the Earth, the agency is shouldering the burden traditionally carried by the Defense Department.
Article includes graphic tracking growth of satellite licenses internationally.
2025: A look ahead
As it has for several years, The Space Report talks to a variety of space leaders in commercial, defense, government and academic sectors to discuss what opportunities lay ahead in the coming year and how the space industry might fundamentally change.
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The Space Report 2024, Quarter 4: e-magazine