Get ready for a year of exciting space missions as 2025 promises to be a spectacular year in spaceflight. With numerous moon landings, high-profile test launches of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, human spaceflight adventures, and asteroid sampling missions on the horizon, here are some of the most alluring space events expected in the coming year.
First up, Intuitive Machines is launching its IM-2 mission to the lunar south pole, with a payload to hunt for water. The mission will aim to set down in an area of Shackleton Connecting Ridge and carries rovers and hoppers from U.S., Japanese, and Finnish partners. SpaceX’s Starship test flights are also expected to dominate 2025, with up to 25 launches planned, including docking two Starships in orbit to demonstrate propellant transfer.
In August, Vast plans to launch its private space station Haven-1 on a Falcon 9 rocket, designed to host a four-person crew for up to 30 days. The station will be a stepping stone to a larger, modular private space station, Haven-2. NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is also set to launch in February, designed to perform an all-sky survey in near-infrared wavelengths.
China’s Tianwen 2 mission will visit the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa in May, using two different types of landing and sampling technologies. The mission could determine if the asteroid is actually a piece of the moon blasted off by a meteor impact. India’s Gaganyaan program is also ramping up its human spaceflight capabilities, with crucial test flights planned for 2025.
Other notable missions include flybys of planetary bodies by ongoing missions, new rocket debuts from around the world, and regular human spaceflight activities at the ISS and Tiangong space station. With so many exciting missions on the horizon, it’s going to be a busy year in space exploration.
Source: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/launches-moon-landings-and-more-the-top-spaceflight-events-to-look-forward-to-in-2025