January 2024: Moon Race, Bitcoin ETFs and 23 Business Days
January 2024 opened the leap year on a Monday, ran 31 days and closed on Wednesday, January 31. It was a month with a moon race in it. America's first commercial lunar lander, Astrobotic's Peregrine, launched January 8 and was doomed within hours by a ruptured propellant tank. Twelve days later Japan's SLIM, the Moon Sniper, touched down within 100 meters of its target. Japan became the fifth nation to soft-land on the moon.
The grid, counted
The numbers first. January 2024 opened on Monday, January 1 and closed on Wednesday, January 31, spanning weeks 1 to 5. It held five Mondays, five Tuesdays and five Wednesdays, with four of each other weekday. That gives you 23 business days and eight weekend days: a full ledger for a fresh year.
The moon kept regular hours. Last quarter fell on Thursday, January 4, new moon on Thursday, January 11, first quarter on Thursday, January 18 and full moon on Thursday, January 25. Every phase landed on a Thursday. The calendar did not arrange that, but it happened anyway.
Two landers, one moon
Peregrine launched from Cape Canaveral on January 8, riding the maiden flight of ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket. The ruptured tank ended the climb within hours. The craft still sent back some science data before burning up over the South Pacific on January 18.
Japan answered. JAXA's SLIM aimed for ground near the Shioli crater and reached it overnight on January 19 to 20. It settled nose-down but kept working, and the landing came inside its 100-meter target. Hitting a target that small was the entire point of the mission.
Money, phones and prizes
On January 10 the SEC approved the first spot bitcoin ETFs, 11 funds, after a decade of rejections; trading began the next day. Bitcoin finally got its paperwork.
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S24 on January 17, built around Galaxy AI and live two-way call translation. The delayed Emmy Awards finally aired on January 15: Succession took best drama, The Bear best comedy, six wins each. In Melbourne on January 28, Jannik Sinner came from two sets down to beat Daniil Medvedev. He became the first Italian man since 1976 to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Copenhagen added a royal handover: Queen Margrethe II abdicated on January 14 after exactly 52 years. It was the first Danish abdication in nearly 900 years, and her son was proclaimed King Frederik X. Oscar nominations on January 23 put Oppenheimer in front with 13 nods.
Everyday life ran loud too. Palworld sold 1 million copies in its first eight hours after launching on January 19, and Ariana Grande's “Yes, And?” arrived January 12 and debuted at number one.
January 2024 kept busy: 31 days, 23 of them for work and two spacecraft with somewhere to be.