Written by Giles Rabin The year 2025 will be a landmark year, with the confirmed return to flight of Ariane 6 and its remarkable ramp-up, the appointment of a “next-former” NASA administrator, SpaceX's Fordist launch figures, and the arrival of the New Glenn heavy-lift launcher. We are entering an industrial era of space travel, where the former craft of space travel is becoming an industry like any other, producing massively with economies of scale. With New Glenn and Starship, weight is no longer a constraint, and the cost per kg in low orbit is approaching the price per kg of a parcel sent to another continent by express delivery.






