Hi, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Happy New Year! Andsurprise!: This will be the last edition of TechCrunch Space for the foreseeable future. I know, its a bummer. But fear not: Well still be reporting on space startups, so I hope youll stay tuned.And there will certainly be a lot to cover. This month is already shaping up to be quite consequential, with Blue Origin preparing to launch its towering New Glenn rocket for the first time and SpaceX planning to demonstrate payload deployment using Starship, also for the first time. Its going to be a big year. Want to reach out with a tip? Send a note to the TechCrunch crew at tips@techcrunch.com.For more secure communications,click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions and links to encrypted messaging apps.Story of the weekNearly a quarter-century after its founding, Jeff BezosBlue Originis gearing up to launch an orbital rocket for the first time and finally enter the competitive launch industry that is currently dominated by SpaceX.I am feeling very, very hype for this launch.An air traffic advisoryposted last week suggests that Blue Origin may conduct the launch no earlier than January 6, but that timing is ultimately TBD and nothing has been confirmed by Blue Origin. Regardless, this will hopefully be the beginning of a huge year for Blue Origins first-ever orbital rocket.New Glenn hot fire testImage Credits:Blue Origin (opens in a new window)Scoop of the weekWere revisiting a scoop that editor Julie Bort and I published earlier in 2024, showing that SpaceX offered some good deals to select insiders who are authorized to buy secondary shares in the company. The story, which is based on internal SpaceX documents, provides an interesting look into the companys top investors.Image Credits:SpaceX (opens in a new window)This week in space historyThis week, were going back in history way back to the seventeenth century, when Galileo Galilei recorded observations about Jupiters four moons for the first time.Why does this matter? When Galileo correctly guessed that the objects he was observing were moons orbiting around a planet, it gave the Italian astronomer strong evidence that Copernicus was right: that the universe did not revolve around the Earth, but instead around the sun. Heres a nice little write-up from NASA on Galileos many discoveries of our solar system.