lunar missions, megalopolis on Mars… After a record year 2024, Elon Musk's ambitions increase tenfold

2024 was a banner year for the global space launch industry, with three new rockets commissioned. An unprecedented conjunction. The offer was enriched with the American Vulcan Centaur, developed by Lockheed and Boeing, which flew for the first time in January 2024. Then, in February, the Japanese H3, built by Mitsubishi, successfully completed its maiden flight after two failures in 2023. And finally, in July, the new heavy launcher Ariane 6, successor to Ariane 5, succeeded in its first flight, giving Europe sovereign access to space again. that she had lost for a year. At the end of 2024, this access was fully recovered with the return to service of the small Italian Vega C rocket, after two years of unavailability. A fourth launcher, the New Glenn from Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company, did not make it to 2024, contrary to its promises. The maiden flight of the giant rocket, which accumulates more than four years of…