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Private companies reached several milestones in space this year, including the first private lunar lander touchdown and the first civilian spacewalk, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX played a key role in many of these missions.
The first big event for the sector this year came on 22 February, when Texas-based Intuitive Machines landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the moon, making it the first private company to achieve a feat previously only accomplished by national space agencies. Despite the lander tilting unexpectedly, the mission was a success and another…