 Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to tomorrow. So I actually struggled a bit to decide what to talk about for my final space pod of 2016 and finally I decided to review and count down the final major rocket launches of this year since We're not going to be talking about any rocket launches until our next live show on January 7th So I wanted to kind of update the scorecard for this year of how many launches have taken place this year and Also make a couple predictions about next year. This is your space pod for December 24th 2016 So first up we have an Atlas V launch which launched the Echo Star 19 communication satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit three two One we have RD-180 ignition and we have liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying Echo Star 19 This Atlas V launched on Sunday, December 18th at 1913 coordinated Universal Time from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida This particular Atlas V was in the 4-3-1 configuration with a four meter payload fairing Three solid rocket boosters and a single engine Centaur upper stage now the payload the Echo Star 19 Satellite also known as Jupiter 2 is a high capacity Communication satellite which will be used by Hughes network systems to provide broadband internet access across North America in Remote areas that don't have access to fiber optics This is supposed to be a new generation that will provide more bandwidth than before and work in conjunction with Existing satellites in the Hughes network. This was United Launch Alliance's final launch of this year And they successfully completed 12 launches this year using both their Atlas V and Delta IV rockets So congratulations to United Launch Alliance for an awesome year next up We have a launch from Japan and this is kind of a rare launch This was a launch of their Epsilon rocket and this was the second ever launch of this particular rocket This launch took place on Tuesday December 20th at 1100 coordinated Universal Time from the Ushinora Space Center on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu Now the Epsilon rocket is a really interesting rocket It's a three-stage solid rocket the first stage of which is based upon the solid rocket boosters that are used on the Japanese H2a rocket the upper stages of the Epsilon are actually Upgraded versions of the upper stages that Japan used to use on their now retired M5 Four-stage all-solid rocket now the payload for this mission was the ERG Satellite which is an acronym which stands for exploration of Energization and radiation in geospace Also, the satellite is nicknamed Arase the ERG or Arase satellite will study the Van Allen radiation belts in Conjunction with NASA's Van Allen probes which were launched back in 2012 Next up. We have a launch out of China and this was a long March 2d rocket This two-stage liquid booster launched on Wednesday December 21st at 1922 Coordinated Universal Time from the G-Quan satellite launch center the payload for this mission was the tan sat satellite Which is designed to track greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere And it will generate monthly maps of where the densest carbon dioxide levels are distributed worldwide Next we have an area on five rocket, which also launched on Wednesday December 21st Just 68 minutes after the tan sat satellite This area on five launched at 2030 coordinated Universal Time from the French Guiana and it carried the star one D1 and JC sat 15 communications satellites Into a geosynchronous transfer orbit now star one D1 will broadcast internet TV Satellite phone calls and high-speed data transmissions over Brazil Mexico and other parts of Latin America star one D1 is the top most payload and the bottom most payload is JC sat 15 which will cover Japan and neighboring countries in the Asian Pacific and Indian Ocean regions It will also replace the nSat 110 communication satellite and JC sat 15 will broadcast Satellite TV as well as provide maritime and aviation connectivity I also love the way that Arianne space does double satellite rideshare launches like this It's so cool to see and I really like the payload fairing within the payload fairing Now there's only two more planned rocket launches before the end of this year both of which could be Chinese launches The first of which would be another long March 2d rocket the two-stage liquid fuel rocket that's scheduled launch on December 26th the day after Christmas and that would be launching the Superview 1 and 2 Earth observation spacecraft and then they have one more launch which has still yet to be decided that would have to happen before December 31st and that would be a long March 3d rocket and that would hopefully be launching the TJS 2 spacecraft which is actually an experimental spacecraft to test new types of broadcast communication technologies What those technologies are? I don't know. I don't have that much access to the Chinese Academy of Science So let's get into the final count of how many Successful orbital rocket launches took place this year coming in at first place the United States had 22 Successful orbital launches this year and coming in in a close second place and could possibly tie for first place is China They currently have 20 successful launches And if those last two planned launches take place this year and are successful then they would tie with the United States with 22 successful launches coming in third place would be Russia with 18 successful launches or Only 16 successful launches if you don't count the Soyuz rockets which launched from French Guiana Speaking of French Guiana coming in fourth place is the European Space Agency with nine successful launches if you only count the Ariane 5 and Vega launches or 11 launches if you also count those two Soyuz launches that took place from French Guiana Coming in fifth place is India with seven successful launches this year of their PSLV and GSLV Rockets and coming in sixth place is Japan with four successful launches this year and Tying for last place is North Korea and Israel with one successful launch apiece Now there was also quite a few successful suborbital launches this year But the ones that I only really wanted to highlight were the four successful launches of blue origins new Shepard rocket and Especially that last and final flight of that particular new Shepard rocket was just amazing to have the launch abort of the capsule and Still successfully land the rocket itself. That was just an amazing flight Which brings me into predictions for next year based on how much blue origins surprised us this year with their Successful launches and their email updates and being a lot more transparent about what they're doing and the activities That they're up to I'm really looking forward to next year and the progress that blue origin makes Seems to me like they might be the first company to start doing actual space tourism or at least Suborbital space tourism they might be the first company to start flying pain customers And that's what I am gonna stick with I think that blue origin is going to win that suborbital race And who are they competing with well virgin galactic of course Which saw the return of their spaceship to spacecraft this year which hasn't yet flown into space and still might be Quite a bit longer than six months away, but we'll see on that I really hope that they prove me wrong course blue origin and virgin galactic are also competing with X-Corp aerospace who I am very happy is still producing their link spacecraft And might be doing a lot of cool work and might even be able to do some sort of test flights next year But looking higher up into orbital space flight I'm really looking forward to the SpaceX return to flight which should be happening sometime next month then January of 2017 but I'm also looking forward to the progress that they're gonna be making on the commercial crew program and their crewed Version of their Dragon capsule if the schedule holds and I'm really hoping that it does they'll have their first test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule next year although there won't actually be a crew on board But you know that's expected for a test flight We're gonna make sure that everything works on it first before you have people on board I'm also gonna be paying really close attention to Boeing next year And I'm really hoping that they don't have any more scheduled delays and any hardware problems I'm really hoping that they're able to do their launch report test next year And that everything will be able to go well with that and they'll be able to finish the construction at the launch pad So that they would be able to have crews be able to ingress into the vehicle when it's on the Atlas 5 rocket ready for launch Something that is going to happen next year is the first flight of China's Tianzhou cargo spacecraft Which is going to rendezvous and dock with the Tian Gong 2 Space station and test out the first type of autonomous propellant transfer Which will be very important to build their mirror class space station in the future There's so many more things that I want to talk about But the last thing that I wanted to touch on was the Google Lunar XPRIZE The deadline for that entire competition is December 31st of 2017 So even though it's gonna be at the very very end of next year We're going to see the Google Lunar XPRIZE come to its conclusion Whether the contest is just lost entirely or if one of the teams win it Anyway, this video is getting pretty long So I need to end things here But I really want to know what you think will be the most exciting moment of next year of 2017 I'm kind of thinking that Blue Origin is going to surprise us with their first Crude flight of the new Shepard and have the first suborbital space tourist happen next year Even if it's not a paying customer It'll probably be like the Blue Origin test pilots or even Jeff Bezos himself But that might happen next year. Who knows? They're they're pretty far along But anyway, let me know what you think in the comments and connect with us on social media As well and start the discussion there of what you think are going to be the most exciting moments of next year Tomorrow is of course a crowdfunded show through Patreon And I am very very very grateful to every single one of you who have contributed to this show over the past year I'm very happy that we were able to bring back space pods and talk about so many cool subjects this year And it's all because of you guys. You you're wonderful wonderful generosity has made all of this possible And I'm really excited that we've been able to create these videos that we've made this past year and create so many interesting discussions and kind of illuminate so many cool things that are happening in space flight And I hope that we were able to do so much more. We here tomorrow have so many cool things planned for orbit 10 next year And it's going to be really a lot of fun And thanks to you guys and your contributions were able to do this And if you're watching this video and you're not one of our patrons already Please visit patreon.com slash space pod for more information and to sign up at whatever level that you feel is appropriate Thank you very much for watching this video. My name is Michael Clark Keep moving onwards and upwards everybody and I will see you next year