The New Glenn rocket is Jeff Bezos’ foray into the heavy-lift rocket game to compete with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. The mission will satisfy a Space Force requirement of two successful certification launches before the company would be allowed to fly nationals security missions.

In 2024, Space Launch Delta 45 oversaw a total of 93 successful launches that delivered nearly 1,400 orbital assets. Those 93 launches helped bring the U.S. launch count for the year to 140 — a new record, and a figure that dwarfs China’s 68 launches.

An FAA statement said Jeff Bezos’ rocket company had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements” for its heavy-lift rocket, which is set up for its debut mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 36.

Thousands of Space Force guardians have traded out fitness tests for continuous tracking of their workouts. The two-year study expected to wrap up in 2025 has attracted about 7,500 guardians, nearly 80% of the force.

As its older sibling branches count centuries of service — the U.S. Army and Navy are older than the country itself — the Space Force’s few birthdays thus far “hold special significance,” a spokesperson for the force said.

Tuesday marked the 90th launch from all providers among Space Coast pads for 2024, with SpaceX responsible for all but five of them. Also, earlier on Tuesday, the company flew the NROL-149, a National Space Security Launch mission, from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The price tag is greater than the $1 billion Jeff Bezos sunk into refurbishing Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36, so it falls in line with Musk’s plans for launching hundreds, and eventually thousands of Starships a year in his quest to create a colony on Mars.

Nearly a mile above Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, a hacked drone soared through restricted airspace for roughly an hour.

North Korea’s state-run news agency has criticized the establishment of a new U.S. Space Force command in Japan as part of Washington’s broader plan to seek “regional hegemony.”

Security experts say SpaceX has leapfrogged so far ahead in several critical technologies that it could deter major rivals like China from engaging in a war with the United States — or tip the balance if one breaks out.