Year-End Space News: Rocket Launches, NASA Administrator, and US Space Policy

Year-End Launch Frenzy

• 🚀 Starlink saw multiple launches from Vandenberg and Florida's east coast, with one booster achieving its 32nd mission.
• 🇨🇳 China conducted numerous Guowang constellation launches using Long March rockets, including the maiden flight of the Long March 12A.
• 🛰️ Several other notable launches occurred, including Xpace's Quou 1A carrying VDES satellites, Long March 4B deploying survey and communications satellites, and Rocket Lab's Electron missions.

Notable Missions and Developments

• 🛰️ NROL77 (USA 570), a National Reconnaissance Office satellite, was launched on a Falcon 9, with orbital elements suggesting it's part of the naval ocean surveillance system.
• 🚀 Rocket Lab's Electron successfully launched the "Raise and Shine" mission and the DISCSATs for the US Space Force, marking a busy year for the company.
• 🛰️ Japan's H3 rocket experienced a second-stage failure during its launch of the MICHIBISHI 5 satellite.
• 🚀 Innospace's debut launch of the Hanbit Nano rocket from Brazil appears to have failed around max Q.
• 🧑‍🚀 Soyuz MS-27 returned to Earth after a 245-day mission, concluding Expedition 73.
• 🧑‍🚀 Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-37 suborbital flight carried Hans Koenigsman and Michaela Bentouse, the first wheelchair-bound astronaut.
• 🧑‍🚀 The full crew for Crew-12 to the International Space Station has been announced, including astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, and ESA.

US Space Policy and Leadership

• 🚀 SpaceX received approval to develop launch complex 37 for Starship and Super Heavy, adding to their launch infrastructure.
• 🛰️ NASA has lost contact with the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars, with concerns it may be the end of the mission.
• 💰 SpaceX is reportedly planning an IPO to raise significant capital, supporting their expansion into computational infrastructure and space data centers.
• 🛰️ Aetherflux is entering the space data center game, alongside their work on solar panels and space-based solar power.
• 🌌 Space Force unveiled new mission naming themes, drawing from Norse mythology, mythological creatures, serpents, sharks, sentinels, ghosts, and constellations.
• 🛰️ Starfish Space and Impulse Space demonstrated a rendezvous technique using only a single camera.
• 🛰️ NASA will test SpaceX's Starshield network for secure interlinks between its deep space network sites.
• 🛰️ Max Space unveiled the Thunderbird space station, an inflatable module design aiming for commercial LEO destinations.
• 🇷🇺 Russia's planned successor to the ISS, the Russian Orbital Station, may utilize modules from the ISS and is being scaled back in ambition.
• 🚀 Astrobotic is developing new versions of reusable test platforms, Zodiac B and C, and Shogdor.
• 🧑‍💼 Jared Isaacman was confirmed as the new NASA Administrator.
• 🇺🇸 President Trump signed an executive order outlining US space strategy, including a goal for a permanent lunar base by 2030 and retiring the ISS in 2030.
• 🚀 Artemis II completed a full countdown rehearsal, with a target launch in February.
• 🚀 Tory Bruno is stepping down as CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) after 12 years, with John Elburn named interim CEO.