It was a jaw dropping year for the space industry, and while we all know by now that progress isn’t linear, we feel pretty confident that 2024 will be even more astonishing. This year was tough for many space companies, and we aren’t trying to paper that over with our optimism. The world of zero-interest-rate policy, or ZIRP, officially ended; cash got more expensive, and fundraising became more challenging. Nevertheless, 2023 also produced a number of tailwinds that we think will make next year one of the most eventful so far. Here’s a brief list of what we’re most excited for next year. This is TechCrunch, so the list skews toward venture-backed startups; keep that in mind before you complain about the absence of Artemis II. Even more Starship tests SpaceX had a landmark year this year, and not only because it executed nearly 100 launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The company also launched Starship – the most powerful launch vehicle ever built – not once, but twice. The first test …