2024, another busy year in space, according to NASA, ESA, Reuters, and New Scientist

I closed 'Can a twice-a-year shot help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic' — Science Magazine's 2024 Breakthrough of the year by telling my readers "Stay tuned for this year's edition of 2023 in space from NASA, ESA, Reuters, and PBS NewsHour tomorrow. Here's to 2024 being another exciting year in space!" It was.

I begin with NASA: Best of 2024.

Find out more about the NASA missions mentioned in this 2024 year-end highlight video by taking a deep dive with these resources.

The Great American Eclipse wasn't a breakthrough, so Science Magazine didn't cover it, but it was a big science story, and I'm pleased that NASA included it in their year-end summary. It also showed up in NASA Johnson's Space to Ground: 2024.

2024 on the International Space Station was a year filled with excitement, challenges, and milestones as we mark 25 unbroken years of humans living, working, and flying in humanity's home in low-earth orbit.

Seeing the umbra from above added a spectacular dimension to the event!

NASA missed one achievement in the year-end summary, which NASA Goddard described in Parker Solar Probe: Humanity’s Closest Encounter with the Sun.

Controllers have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received in the late evening hours of Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the encounter safely and is operating normally.

This pass, the first of more to come at this distance, allows the spacecraft to conduct unrivaled scientific measurements with the potential to change our understanding of the Sun.

NASA's year in review came out just a little too early to include this feat of science and engineering.

Follow over the jump for space news from both inside and outside the U.S., although the Russian space agency Roscosmos played a supporting role in the ISS highlights.

Now for ESA 2024 Highlights: flight of the Ariane 6.

In 2024, ESA continued to drive Europe’s innovation and excellence in space, equipping the continent with advanced tools and knowledge to address global and local challenges. The year saw pioneering missions, cutting-edge satellites and the pivotal restoration of Europe’s independent access to space.

That's much more the kind of year in review I was expecting from NASA. Their video wasn't really a "This Year @NASA." In fact, the U.S. space agency stopped producing "This Week @NASA"; it uploaded the last one in June. I miss those.

Reuters examined space achievements outside of NASA and ESA in Top space stories of 2024.

From the launch of the first wooden satellite to the technical issues faced by Boeing's Starliner, these are some of the top space stories from 2024.

I wrote yesterday that I would cover "Starship sticks the landing" today, and now I have.

Starship also stars in New Scientist's Starship to civilian spacewalks: The biggest space projects that launched in 2024.

2024 has been a breakthrough year for space exploration, including several milestones like the first private lunar lander touchdown and the first civilian spacewalk, as well as the beginnings of missions that will explore the sun and outer solar system. Here are some of the major launches we’ve reported on this year.

With that, I consider the review of this year in space complete. Stay tuned for year-end retrospectives through New Year's Eve, continuing with the year in movies and TV for the Sunday entertainment feature.