Around the World in 365 Days

From rockets taking flight to alliances forming in orbit to Space Race 2.0 with all eyes on the Moon, it’s clear that the busy year in space extended well beyond America’s borders.

The vast majority of nations with space programs increased their investment in sovereign space capabilities and made progress in standing up self-sustaining national space industries. And we also saw some not-yet-spacefaring nations jump into the conversation about orbital capabilities through international dialogues. 

Here are some of the highlights from the international space community in 2024:

Packed launch: The US still dominates the launch market—but the rest of the world is rising to the occasion. Europe logged some milestones, including welcoming Ariane 6 and Vega-C into its active roster after years of delays and pauses, while the continent also bid farewell to Vega, which made its final flight in September.  

Elsewhere in the world, nations with established launch capabilities demonstrated what business as usual looks like. 

• India launched three rockets from the country’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre
• Japan performed five successful launches between its H2A and H3 rockets. 

However, Japan also experienced double trouble trying to get the country’s Space One Kairos rocket into orbit and failing twice in ten months.

Be prepared for a massive increase in non-US launches in the coming years, as the number of spaceports in operation or under construction grew considerably this year.

• Oman launched its first suborbital rocket from the newly formed Etlaq Spaceport.
• PLD Space announced a €10M ($10.4M) investment into a new launch facility in French Guiana.
• NordSpace invested $5M in a Canadian spaceport.
• Norway’s Andøya spaceport got the green light to begin hosting launches.
• Sutherland Spaceport in the UK saw a slight setback when Orbex decided to suspend development on the spaceport and shift operations to SaxaVord.

Howdy partner: As much as 2024 was marked by a drive for individual sovereign success, there were also agreements to bolster cooperation.

The Artemis Accords surpassed 50 signatories this month, with the recent addition of Thailand bringing the total count to 51. In May, twelve nations in the EU signed the Zero Debris Charter, agreeing on rules and best practices to keep orbital lanes clean.

China is growing its stable of partners to help it head to the Moon as well. Thailand, Nicaragua, Senegal, Kazakhstan, and Serbia all signed agreements with Beijing to partner on its International Lunar Research Center (ILRS), bringing the total national partners to 13. China’s goal is to get 50 nations to partner on the Moon base in the coming years.

Hello Moon: 2024 brought the world a step closer to building a sustained presence on the lunar surface. JAXA sent a lunar lander to the Moon in January, becoming the fifth country in history to send tech to the lunar surface. 

China started the year on shaky ground, with two lunar-bound spacecraft ending up in the wrong orbit (though engineers eventually got them on their way). Shortly after, China sent a lunar relay satellite to orbit the Moon. In June, the nation successfully returned lunar samples from the Moon’s far side using its Chang’e-6 return capsule.

Remote working: The Europeans signaled their entrance into the space station game with an agreement between ESA and Vast to study how the EU can participate in the company’s planned commercial station. Germany-based The Exploration Company also signed a deal with Vast to provide cargo services to the company’s second space station.

Japan announced a ¥1T ($6.2B) fund to back commercial space ventures in the post-ISS world, including space station technology.

For their part, the Chinese proved this year that their Tiangong space station could perform as advertised. The station hosted multiple rotating groups of taikonauts and received uncrewed shipments of cargo.  

Not without incident: Between China’s Long March 6A launch and the breakup of both a defunct Russian spacecraft and the Intelsat 33e sat, over a thousand pieces of debris were strewn over the orbital freeways this year.

Additionally, it seems that space is becoming increasingly militarized. In April, Russia vetoed a UN resolution banning nuclear weapons in space, and the DoD confirmed that the nation is developing nuclear counterspace weapons. Meanwhile China spent the year deploying an unknown number of secretive spy, radar, and remote sensing satellites.