Dr. Jennifer Gannon passed away suddenly on 2024 May 2 in Greenbelt, MD. Dr. Gannon had served as an editor for the Space Weather journal since April 2019, and she was the longest-serving editor on the current board, having started under the previous editor-in-chief, Dr. Delores Knipp. Abstract content goes here

Manuscripts based on machine-learning techniques have significantly increased in Space Weather over the past few years. We discuss which manuscripts are within the journal’s scope and emphasize that manuscripts fo-cusing purely on a forecasting technique (rather than on understanding and forecasting a phenomenon) must correspond to a substantial improvement over the current state-of-the-art techniques and present this comparison. All manuscripts shall include information about data preparation, including splitting of data between training, validation and testing sets. The software and/or algorithms used for to develop the machine-learning technique should be included in a repository at the time of submission. Comparison with published results using other methods must be presented, and uncertainties of the forecast results must be discussed.

The 3 February 2022 launch of 49 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites has provided a fascinating example of how even modest space weather can have significant practical and financial consequences. Enhanced atmospheric drag associated with a minor geomagnetic storm led to the loss of the majority of the 49 launched satellites. Although the 36th launch by SpaceX in the past 3 years, it was the first that experienced stormy space weather. We expect more stormy space weather as Solar Cycle 25 ramps up towards its peak expected in 2025. A subsequent Starlink launch on 21 February used a higher initial orbit at 300km, reducing the payload from 49 to 46 satellites, and can be considered an agile response to the space weather losses experienced two weeks earlier. Lessons to be learnt by the space industry and the space weather community are discussed, including a better dialogue, nuanced understanding of space weather risks associated with modest events, but also an opportunity to investigate the space environment in relatively unexplored regions such as very low and high low Earth orbits.