Terminal Count: Artemis 2 delayed to 2026 while SpaceX continues to break records

It will be a quiet launch week with only two days seeing orbital launches from China, Japan, and of course, SpaceX. The biggest story of the last week was with NASA; it received a nomination for the next NASA Administrator, then the outgoing Administrator announced the delay of the Artemis 2 and 3 missions.

This week’s launches

• December 12 (Thursday)
  • Galactic Energy | Ceres 1 | Unknown Payload | 2:20 A.M. ET
    • Site 95A, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-2 | 11:33 A.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• December 13 (Friday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | O3b mPOWER 7 & 8 | 3:55 P.M. ET
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | GPS-3 10 | 6:30 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
  • Space One | KAIROS | Flight 2 | 9:00 P.M. ET
    • Space One Launch Pad, Space Port Kii, Japan

In the news

President-Elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate Jared Isaacman as the next NASA Administrator. The private astronaut and entrepreneur has a large amount of experience in the private aerospace industry; however, some doubt his ability to effectively run a government agency and are concerned about his close ties to SpaceX. [Space Explored]

SpaceX’s seventh Starship flight likely won’t take place until mid-January 2025 and could be a repeat of Flights 5 and 6. An exception application by NASA to the FAA for a future Starship study flight shared some insight into the timeline and flight profile expected for Flight 7. With Flight 7 being the first Block 2 Starship flight, a similar sub-orbital trajectory that we’ve already seen could be used once more. [Space Explored]

Australian launch company, Gilmour Space Technologies, announced that the nation’s first home-built orbital launch is delayed until mid-January. The company shared that the teams are still working through final tests and coordinating with regulators about the launch. [Gilmour Space Technologies]

SpaceX’s expected valuation could jump to $95 billion in a post-election tender offer. Those familiar with the pending sale say the new valuation would put SpaceX at $350 billion, surpassing all other private companies. [Bloomberg News]

Artemis 2 delayed until 2026

NASA has announced the long-expected delay of the Artemis 2 mission that will see humans return to the Moon since the Apollo Program. Outgoing NASA Administrator Bill Nelson started the press conference off with the phrase long used by the agency to soften the blow of program delays, “space is hard.”

Artemis 1 launched over two years ago and was viewed as an overall successful flight. However, Artemis 2’s flight has been delayed mostly due to unexpected erosion found on Artemis 1’s Orion heat shield. NASA has finally been able to determine the root cause of the problem and create a remedy for future heat shields in production. However, for the existing heat shield for Artemis 2, a modified reentry will be needed to reduce added erosion.

So while NASA teams begin stacking the first parts of Artemis 2’s SLS rocket over in Kennedy, they will have until April of 2026 to finish that work rather than until November of next year. Artemis 3 will also be delayed into mid-2027.

The Artemis Program is expected to have a major change in its goals and plans when President Trump returns to the White House next January.

SpaceX is breaking records left, right, and center

Over the weekend, SpaceX brought its launch total up to 128 total launches for 2024: 123 Falcon 9s, two Falcon Heavies, and three Starships, once again breaking records for the most launches by a company and by a single rocket.

This year has also been the year SpaceX has been rapidly increasing its launch cadence of reused boosters. In recent years, a few months have been the norm, but now it’s just a matter of weeks. Last month, SpaceX set its newest record of launching a booster again in less than 14 days.

Most of these reusability advancements and records of the Falcon 9 are thanks to SpaceX’s need to launch thousands of Starlink satellites each year. The company recently completed the first shell of its direct-to-cell constellation and gained approval to provide the service to T-Mobile devices.

However, once Starship begins regular orbital flights, Starlink launches will move over to that rocket, leaving SpaceX with only commercial contracts that pale in number.