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In 2024, the United States sent a spacecraft back to the lunar expanse, private astronauts achieved remarkable milestones, and SpaceX intensified the experimentation of a vehicle that will prove crucial in humanity’s endeavors for deep-space exploration.
While the previous year of space exploration was characterized by a succession of significant missions that expanded the frontiers of cosmic investigation, 2025 promises to be equally thrilling. Although humans might not return to the moon as quickly as NASA had anticipated, that certainly does not imply the forthcoming year will be lackluster.
From uncrewed lunar expeditions to the debut of the first private space station, here’s a preview of the space endeavors that could hallmark 2025:
SpaceX aims to escalate Starship launches
The request from Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private space transportation company, aims to increase the flight tests of the enormous SpaceX megarocket from five demonstrations in 2024 to 25 next year. While Musk’s appeal will require the endorsement of federal authorities, it emerges as the tech entrepreneur’s sway over U.S. policy is expected to expand with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in January.
SpaceX envisions the spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed, as a completely reusable transport system capable of ferrying both humans and cargo to Earth’s orbit, the moon, and potentially Mars.
Simultaneously, SpaceX is rapidly prepping for the seventh flight trial of the 400-foot Starship, which comprises both a spacecraft and the Super Heavy rocket booster. The company has yet to declare a target launch date.
Firefly to dispatch lander with NASA devices to moon
A commercial lunar lander is set to embark on its journey to the moon with a suite of scientific instruments for a $93.3 million NASA mission aimed at examining the moon’s environment prior to human arrival.
NASA chose Firefly Aerospace in 2021 to execute the first of at least two robotic deliveries to the moon. The aerospace firm, situated in Cedar Park, Texas, designed and will operate the Blue Ghost lander, which will transport 10 scientific and technological payloads for the U.S. space agency.
A six-day launch opportunity opens no sooner than mid-January for the company’s inaugural launch using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Upon reaching lunar orbit, the uncrewed vehicle will touch down near a volcanic feature known as Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium – a 300-mile-wide basin located in the moon’s northeast quadrant. The instruments aboard the lander will examine various aspects, such as the lunar subsurface and global navigation satellite capabilities. The data that NASA aims to collect is expected to yield insights into the effects of space weather and other cosmic forces on Earth.
Upcoming missions by Firefly will target the far side of the moon and include deploying a satellite that will orbit the area.
Firefly represents one of several American companies contracted by NASA for lunar expeditions in the near future under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS. In recent years,NASA has started compensating private enterprises for tasks it previously executed internally as a means to reduce expenses.
NASA’s SPHEREx telescope to investigate the universe’s origins
The advanced SPHEREx telescope from NASA is poised to embark on a mission aimed at uncovering some of the universe’s most ancient enigmas – including its inception.
The long form of the acronym is rather cumbersome: The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer. However, the mission’s goal is quite simple: Delve into the universe’s origins.
This telescope, bearing an impressive $242 million cost, is designed to survey over 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars within our Milky Way. Several galaxies that it will observe are so far away that their light has taken 10 billion years to arrive at Earth.
The space telescope is capable of identifying more than 100 colors in both optical and near-infrared light which, while invisible to the human eye, acts as a potent instrument for addressing cosmic inquiries, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which oversees the mission.
The undertaking will investigate the universe for indications of water and organic compounds – the essential elements for life – around stars where new planets may be taking shape and in stellar nurseries. These areas are the birthplaces of stars formed from gas and dust.
The mission is set to launch no sooner than late-February.
Boeing Starliner astronauts to return on SpaceX craft
The astronauts aboard NASA’s Starliner are expected to make their long-awaited return to Earth as soon as the end of March.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore weren’t supposed to remain at the International Space Station for more than a few days in June after arriving at the orbital facility during the first flight test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, their return faced multiple postponements until NASA ultimately determined in August that the most secure option would be to return the duo to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon vehicle.
The Boeing Starliner undocked in September in their absence, landing in the desert of New Mexico.
The return of the Starliner astronauts was initially scheduled for February alongside two space travelers participating in a SpaceX mission named Crew-9. However, in early December, NASA decided to postpone that return until late March to allow time for preparation of the Dragon vehicle that will transport their successors to the space station.
World’s first private space station to achieve orbit
While NASA may be on the verge of retiring the International Space Station in the upcoming years, a private entity is already making arrangements to launch one of its own.
In fact, the inaugural step towards constructing the world’s first commercial space station is anticipated to occur as early as August 2025.
Vast, a company located in Long Beach, California, declared in 2023 its intention to launch its space station, known as Haven-1.
The mission will swiftly be followed by Vast-1, the initial human spaceflight endeavor to Haven-1. The four-member crew will travel aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to dock with the space station for durations of up to 30 days while orbiting Earth, as stated by Vast.
Planned for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Haven-1 will initially function as a standalone crewed space station before being integrated as a module toHaven-2, an expanded Vast space station. Haven-2, identified by Vast as a replacement for the International Space Station, could be operational in low Earth orbit by 2028, which is two years prior to the ISS’s expected decommissioning, as stated by the corporation.
Intuitive Machines set to launch another lunar lander
Following its achievement as the first commercial entity to successfully land an uncrewed vehicle on the moon, Intuitive Machines is planning another journey to the lunar surface.
Intuitive Machines’ second contracted mission, IM-2, is slated to launch sometime in 2025 and is set to land at the lunar south pole, according to NASA.
This lunar landing effort follows the successful arrival of Houston’s space company’s 14-foot-tall Nova-C lander, affectionately called Odysseus after the legendary Greek hero, which reached the moon in February 2024, marking the United States’ first lunar return since NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1970s. The site of the lander’s touchdown is recognized as the southernmost point any vehicle has ever landed on the Moon.
The upcoming NOVA-C lunar lander, which SpaceNews reported has been named “Athena,” is intended to land close to the Shackleton impact crater, equipped with a drill and a mass spectrometer, NASA indicated.
The spacecraft will share its journey to the moon with the NASA Lunar Trailblazer orbiter. The Lunar Trailblazer will be launched alongside the IM-2 lander aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The Lunar Trailblazer is designed to map the allocation of various types of water found on the Moon’s surface.
This information could be advantageous in the coming years, as NASA’s Artemis initiative seeks to create a lunar base at the south pole. Water ice believed to be plentiful in the area could be harvested and utilized for drinking, respiration, and as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket propellant.
Eric Lagatta covers developing and trending news for USA TODAY. You can reach him at [email protected]
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