TechCrunch Space: Sayonara | TechCrunch

Hello and welcome to TechCrunch Space. This will happen final Happy holidays to all our TechCrunch Space newsletter readers in 2024 and see you next year.

There is so much to look forward to next year. I expect to see more progress on Starship from SpaceX, big changes at NASA under incoming administrator Jared Isaacman, Rocket Lab’s Neutron debut, and big missions for Impulse Space, Varda, and dozens of other startups. It will also be interesting to see if the rumors of Boeing selling its space business are true. It would indeed mark a new world order.

In terms of enterprise funding, I expect to see more of a recovery from the lows through 2023, and if Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency does even a fraction of what he’s proposing, it could significantly weaken the regulatory and bureaucratic environment in which infrastructure exists. -heavy industries (like space) operate. Downstream effects can be seen very quickly.

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Speaking of regulations, it was nice to get an update from Blue Origin last week on the first launch of the New Glenn, with the company saying that essentially the only pieces of puzzle to complete are regulatory approvals for hot-fire testing and launch of the rocket.

With two weeks left in the year, it’s entirely possible that New Glenn could still launch in 2024, but a lot will depend on how the hot fire test goes. The turnaround time will be tight…

The last deals in the space have dropped this year, so it was exciting to see the announcement in the space. Fleet Space Technologies announced that it had closed a $100 million Series D. An Adelaide, Australia-based startup has developed a technology stack to enable mineral exploration from space – and identifying critical mineral deposits will be key in a future that relies heavily on them (i.e. lithium identification). batteries).

This week in space history

Okay, we did Thank you in space a few publications ago, so it’s only fitting that we take a look at how astronauts celebrate Christmas in space. The astronaut fleet has spent 18 years in a row celebrating the holiday aboard the station, complete with mini Christmas trees, Santa hats, stockings and other decorations.

Click this link to see a really cool collection of NASA photos through the years.