The year 2025 is poised to showcase a series of significant space missions, including lunar landings, test launches of SpaceX's Starship, human spaceflight initiatives, and asteroid sampling projects.
January will kick off with multiple robotic lunar lander missions. Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander is scheduled to launch from Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 10 NASA payloads. This 60-day mission aims to land in the Mare Crisium impact basin and conduct scientific research for nearly two weeks. Additionally, the Hakuto-R Mission 2 lander from Japanese firm ispace will also launch on the Falcon 9, targeting a landing in the Mare Frigoris region four to five months post-launch, equipped with a minirover named Tenacious.
Intuitive Machines plans to launch its IM-2 mission in January, optimized for the lunar south pole, with a focus on water detection. This mission will include rovers and hoppers from international partners and payloads for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. A third mission, IM-3, may follow later in the year. Blue Origin's MK1 Lunar Lander and Astrobotic's Griffin Mission 1 are also slated for launches in 2025.
SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, is set to conduct up to 25 test launches in 2025, potentially including demonstrations of in-orbit propellant transfer and an uncrewed lunar variant for NASA's Artemis 3 mission.
As the International Space Station approaches its operational end, commercial space stations are emerging. Vast's Haven-1, launching no earlier than August, is designed for a four-person crew and aims to pave the way for a larger private space station.
NASA's Juno mission, which has been studying Jupiter since 2016, is expected to deorbit in September to avoid contaminating its moons, echoing the fate of the Cassini mission.
NASA's SPHEREx observatory is scheduled for a February launch to create a 3D map of galaxies and stars. Meanwhile, China aims to launch its Tianwen 2 asteroid sampling mission in May, targeting the near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa.
India's Gaganyaan program is also progressing, with crucial test flights planned for 2025, leading to a crewed mission in 2026.
Ongoing missions will conduct flybys of various planetary bodies, while new rockets from Rocket Lab, Rocket Factory Augsburg, Landspace, and Stoke Space are expected to debut, alongside regular human spaceflight activities at the ISS and Tiangong space station.