2025 Space Updates: A Look Back at December 2024 and Beyond
0:17 December 17: Falcon 9 launched 22 Star Shield satellites as part of nrol 149 from Vandenberg.
0:33 December 17: Falcon 9 carried a pair of 03 BM power satellites (number seven and eight) for sces into medium-earth orbit.
0:48 December 18: Japan's Kairos solid rocket experienced a failure, losing control and tumbling a minute and a half into flight. The first stage's attitude control system is suspected to be the cause of the failure. The rocket carried a spacecraft called Tatara 1 and a few other cube satellites.
1:28 December 19: China's Series-1s rocket launched Tianyi Internet of Things satellites (number 33 through 36) into low-earth orbit.
1:56 December 20: A Long March 3B/E launched China's early warning satellite, the Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-12, into geostationary orbit.
2:20 December 21: Falcon 9 launched the Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying multiple satellites into a 45-degree inclination orbit, including Korea's Dalpha synthetic aperture radar satellite.
2:52 December 21: Rocket Lab launched a Synspective StriX-2 synthetic aperture radar satellite into sun-synchronous orbit.
3:09 December 23: Falcon 9 launched 21 Starlink satellites (Group 12-2) from Kennedy Space Center.
3:22 December 25: A Soyuz 2.1b launched the Resurs-P No. 5 Earth observation satellite into sun-synchronous orbit, marking the 2000th launch of an R7 launch vehicle.
4:04 December 27: China's Kuaizhou-1A experienced a launch failure, with the third stage losing attitude control and self-destructing. The rocket carried several satellites, including the Deer-3 spacecraft and the CAAASAT for studying the South Atlantic Anomaly.
5:05 December 29: Falcon 9 launched 22 Starlink satellites (Group 11-3) from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
5:16 December 29: Falcon 9 launched four Astranis geostationary satellites.
6:13 December 30: India's PSLV-CA launched the SPADEX-A and -B space docking experiment, demonstrating a scaled-down version of the International Docking Standard. The launch also carried the POEM-4 platform with approximately 20 experiments, including a remote manipulator arm.
7:44 December 31: Falcon 9 launched 21 Starlink satellites (Group 12-6) from Launch Complex 39A in Florida.
8:05 January 2025: A Falcon 9 carried the Thuraya-4 satellite into orbit.
8:41 2024 Launch Statistics: 263 orbital rocket launches worldwide, with 145 from the USA (including 13 from New Zealand by a US company), 68 from China, 17 from Russia, 7 from Japan, 5 from India, 4 from Iran, 3 from Europe, and 1 from North Korea.
10:44 Axiom Space Station Update: Axiom is changing its plans for the International Space Station due to deorbit vehicle requirements. They will first launch a power and propulsion module to dock with the ISS, followed by a habitation module later.
13:08 Vast and Axiom Compete for ISS Missions: Vast announced an agreement with SpaceX for private astronaut launches to the ISS, competing with Axiom for limited slots.
13:45 Upcoming Lunar Missions: A Falcon 9 will launch both the ispace lunar lander and Firefly's Blue Ghost lander. The ispace lander will take a slow, low-energy trajectory, while Blue Ghost will perform a faster transfer after initial checkout in low-Earth orbit.
15:51 Orbital Debris Incident: The F-14 satellite from an old military defense meteorological program broke up into at least 50 pieces.
16:40 Parker Solar Probe Update: The probe survived its Christmas Eve perihelion and functioned correctly, but science data is not yet available.
17:12 Blue Origin's New Glenn Update: A 24-second hot fire test of the booster was conducted. The debut launch is anticipated soon.
18:11 Space Debris in Kenya: A 2.5-meter metal ring, suspected to be a payload adapter from an Ariane 5 rocket, was recovered in Kenya.
19:53 OneWeb Outage: OneWeb experienced a 36-hour outage due to a software issue related to the 2024 leap year.
20:41 SpaceX Super Heavy Flight Number 7: Flight 7 will feature an upgraded Starship (V2) with bigger tanks, a larger cargo area, and relocated fins. The mission will also test a Pez dispenser with simulated satellites.
23:03 Upcoming Launches: Blue Origin's New Glenn is scheduled to launch, followed by SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy.