Upcoming Space Launches and Missions Set for 2025

From robotic expeditions to the moon to new observatories in space and rendezvous with asteroids, 2025 promises to be full of ambitious space exploration.

NASA and U.S. commercial space companies aren’t the only ones busy. Launch plans planned for this year include potential milestones in China, Japan and India.

Here are some of the biggest upcoming space missions.

Moon fever continues

In 2025, the moon will once again be in the spotlight.

Later this month, SpaceX rockets are scheduled to launch two new missions to the moon. One, a lander called Blue Ghost developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, is intended to spend about two weeks collecting scientific data on the moon. The second is a privately built Japanese lunar lander with an attached small rover.

The Blue Ghost attempts to land on a region of the moon known as the Moon. Mare Crisium is thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative. The space agency has signed contracts with three private companies, including Firefly Aerospace, to transport scientific experiments, technology and other cargo to the moon’s surface. The effort is part of NASA’s larger Artemis mission, which aims to eventually return humans to the moon. The Blue Ghost mission will carry out 10 NASA science and technology experiments.

Riding into orbit on the same rocket booster will be a resilient lander developed by a Japanese company called ispace and the Tenacious “micro rover.” It aims to take a longer route to the moon, consuming less energy than the Blue Ghost, and land on the lunar surface approximately four to five months after launch.

The touchdown target is located in the far north of the moon, in an area called Mare Frigoris.

iSpace’s bid to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon ended in disappointment last year. The company’s lander, Hakuto, accelerated unexpectedly during its descent and crashed onto the lunar surface.

A third lunar launch by the company, which was the first to land a privately built ship on the moon, could also take place this month.

Texas-based Intuitive Machines also won a contract under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Last year, the company’s lander became the first American vehicle to land on the moon in more than 50 years. The company aims to send its next-generation lander to the moon’s south pole on another SpaceX rocket in the coming weeks.

The mission will include a drill to extract lunar soil and a robot that will hop into nearby craters to take images and perform scientific experiments.

Exploring the origin of the universe

NASA aims to launch the SPHEREx mission, a space observatory designed to map the entire sky in optical and near-infrared light, in late February.

The spacecraft will observe more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way and collect data on more than 450 million other galaxies.

As part of its planned two-year mission, the observatory will also search for signs of life as we know it, such as water and organic molecules, in the Milky Way. Experts hope the expedition will provide insight into how galaxies form and how the universe came into being.

Two NASA astronauts finally return home

Two NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station since a problem aboard their Boeing spacecraft in June are finally scheduled to return home in March.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were launched to the ISS on the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The original plan was for the two to spend about a week on the space station, then return to Earth on the Starliner. However, the capsule encountered fuel leaks and thruster problems, so NASA opted to leave Williams and Wilmore in orbit and return the spacecraft unmanned.

They will have spent more than nine months in space before returning to Earth in a SpaceX capsule with two other space station crew members.

India’s spaceflight ambitions

India is poised to make major strides in its human spaceflight program this year.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) astronaut Shubhansh Shukla will fly to the International Space Station on a commercial mission run by Texas-based startup Axiom Space.

The launch, expected by spring at the earliest, will include government-backed crew members from Poland and Hungary. The crew will spend up to 14 days on the ISS.

Meanwhile, India is also working on developing its own manned spacecraft, aiming to launch its first one in 2026.

A new private space station?

California-based startup Vast plans to launch its first commercial space station into orbit this year. The civilian outpost, called Haven-1, is scheduled to launch by August on a SpaceX rocket.

Haven-1 is designed to accommodate four astronauts on missions of up to 30 days. The space station will initially function as an independent outpost, but Vasto plans to eventually connect it to a larger module in development.

In partnership with SpaceX, Vast intends to someday launch a crewed mission to the Haven-1 outpost, but the company has not yet announced a target date for that launch.

China encounters an asteroid

China’s space exploration shows no signs of slowing down even in 2025.

This spring, the country plans to launch a mission to collect asteroid samples, the first such expedition.

The plan calls for a spacecraft called Tenbun-2 to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid called Kamoorewa, which some scientists have suggested. maybe part of the moon It was ejected during an ancient collision.

The mission aims to collect debris from the asteroid, release a capsule containing samples, and return to Earth in 2026. After that, the Tenbun-2 probe is expected to orbit around the Earth and fly using the Earth’s gravity as a slingshot. Heading toward the comet known as 311P/Panstars. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at the comet in the mid-2030s.

If China’s asteroid sampling mission is successful, it would be a major accomplishment for the country’s space agency. This would be an achievement that follows several recent milestones. China has already become the first company to collect and return samples from the far side of the moon, landed a rover on Mars and completed construction of its own Tiangong space station.