Though 2025 won't mark the return of astronauts into deep space as NASA had hoped, launchpads still will be scorching-hot from a procession of robotic spacecraft attempting to land on the moon.
How many of these moon landings will succeed? Will the number top the two-ish (one of which made a heckuva comeback) last year?
Giant commercial rockets, such as SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's New Glenn, will likely also have several uncrewed orbital test launches as they iron out the kinks in their hardware. And while people await scientific missions to distant solar system destinations, a few probes will send home close-up pictures of planets as they snag gravitational boosts from flybys.
Here's a round-up of space missions and cosmic events just around the bend. Bookmark this calendar and look for updates from Mashable throughout the year.
BepiColombo makes final Mercury flyby: Jan. 8
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, but it's perhaps the most overlooked of the rocky worlds in the solar system. Hot and harder to reach than Saturn, it hasn't enjoyed the level of study that other worlds have.
But BepiColombo, a joint mission of the European and Japanese space agencies, seeks to change that. The spacecraft makes its sixth and final flyby on Jan. 8 before returning to enter orbit around the planet in late 2026. Closest approach will take the spacecraft just 160 miles above the surface of Mercury. Mission controllers will release images of the event on Jan. 9.
Blue Origin's first flight for New Glenn: Jan. 10
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will soon get a chance to see his giant rocket New Glenn launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
His aerospace company Blue Origin has received its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration and intends to attempt a liftoff no earlier than Jan. 10. The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. ET.
Blue Origin's goal is to reach orbit, and the company will also try to land its booster on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean so that it can be reused on future flights, though executives admit doing so would be "ambitious" on the first try.
SpaceX tests upgraded Starship: Jan. 13
SpaceX is preparing to launch another uncrewed Starship test, this time with an upgraded spacecraft and 10 mock satellites to practice a payload deployment in space.
This SpaceX launch would mark the seventh Starship test and feature a reused engine from the booster returned from the fifth test. The launch window opens at 4:00 p.m. CT.
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Two moon landers on one rocket: Jan. 15
Two small uncrewed spacecraft, one of which is carrying several NASA instruments, will try to land on the moon with a boost from the same rocket.
Both Firefly Aerospace and Japan's ispace will ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket slated to leave Earth at 1:11 a.m. ET Jan. 15. Firefly's Blue Ghost lander was originally scheduled to lift off in late 2024, and the launch will mark its maiden voyage. The spacecraft is slated to travel for four days before reaching the moon, then orbiting it for 16 days before trying to touch down.
Firefly's flight will be the first Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission of the year. The NASA program has recruited vendors from the private sector to help deliver instruments to the moon and send back crucial data.
Ispace's new Hakuto-R mission will be its second try, after it ran out of fuel and crashed on the lunar surface in April 2023. The Resilience lander, a partnership with Japan's space agency JAXA, is taking a long way to the moon to save on fuel, arriving about four to five months after launch.
NASA moon rover and orbiter delivery: February
Intuitive Machines made history last year as the first company to reach the moon intact — though its lander, Odysseus, broke landing gear and touched down tilted.
The Houston-based company is now gearing up for a second moon landing — this time with the Athena lander. The mission, referred to as IM-2 or PRIME-1, will carry a NASA rover. The spacecraft will test a drill and mass spectrometer, a device that identifies the kinds of particles in a substance. As planned, another spacecraft, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer, will also hitch a ride on this flight. The small satellite will orbit the moon to map out the locations of lunar water.
Europa Clipper flies by Mars: Feb. 27
After a successful October 2024 launch, the Europa Clipper spacecraft has been hurtling through space. It's on schedule to make its first flyby of Mars on Feb. 27, where it will get a gravity assist to continue its journey. The craft won't arrive at Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, for its mission until 2030.
Scientists are intrigued by Europa because they believe it could hold double the water held by Earth's oceans. Could this small world in the outer solar system have conditions capable of supporting life? If NASA finds that Europa is a habitable place, a second Europa mission could return to determine if there are indeed any inhabitants.
Launch of new astrophysics observatory: February
NASA intends to launch an astrophysics observatory to create a map of the entire sky in 3D. The mission, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), will orbit Earth while studying hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies, showing them in 102 invisible "colors."
One of the main goals of the mission is to learn more about cosmic inflation, a brief but crucial phase of the Big Bang that contributed to the universe's expansion. It will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
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European spacecraft Hera flies by Mars: March
Back in 2022, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a harmless asteroid to practice thwarting a space rock, should a hazardous one ever be on a collision course with Earth.
The European Space Agency is providing a follow-up to that test, known as Hera. The mission's spacecraft launched in October 2024 and will rendezvous with Dimorphos, the slammed asteroid, in 2026. But this March, it will also have a quick pop-in with Mars and one of the Red Planet's two moons, Deimos. Mission controllers will use the opportunity to collect data on the Martian moon.
Boeing astronaut crew returns home: March
Two astronauts whose eight-day visit to the International Space Station turned into a more than eight-month layover are expected to return to Earth in March.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been waiting for their ride since the space agency decided not to send them home on the spaceship they rode in on. That test vehicle, Boeing's Starliner, landed empty without any problems, but NASA hadn't wanted to risk it after the capsule experienced propulsion issues in space.
The pair was supposed to return in a SpaceX Dragon capsule in February, but NASA announced at the end of 2024 that the flight would likely be pushed back to March. Wilmore and Williams, who were integrated into Crew-9, will fly back to Earth after Crew-10 arrives at the space station.
NASA and India join forces on a satellite: March
NASA is teaming up with India's space agency on a mission to study Earth's land and ice.
This mission involves the NISAR satellite, which will scan all of the planet's surfaces twice every 12 days to measure changes. The satellite will launch from the Indian Space Research Organisation's space port, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, on India's southeastern coast.
Private astronauts fly to ISS: no earlier than spring
Private astronauts will launch to the International Space Station for Axiom Space's fourth such mission. The four crew members are awaiting approval to fly to the orbiting lab and will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, no earlier than this spring.
When Axiom flew its first private mission in 2022, it redefined the word "astronaut." For decades, that title was reserved for government space pilots and crew. More recently, uber-rich space tourists earned the distinction by breaching Earth's atmosphere. But with Axiom's private mission came a third possible description: Someone privately trained and sent into space to perform commercial scientific research. Axiom crews receive 750 to over 1,000 hours of training.
Twin spacecraft go to Mars: no earlier than spring
A NASA-funded science mission seeks to get to the bottom of how solar radiation strips away the tattered Martian atmosphere. Called Escapade, the mission will involve two Mars orbiters built by Rocket Lab.
The flight was previously scheduled for October aboard Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, which would have been its first launch. But, as rockets are wont to do, the inaugural flight was delayed. NASA and Blue Origin are now in talks for a new launch date for that mission, no earlier than spring 2025.
Lucy spacecraft flies by asteroid: April 20
NASA launched the Lucy spacecraft on a grand 12-year asteroid tour last fall with plans to fly by several space rocks that share Jupiter’s orbit. On April 20, Lucy will encounter a small main-belt asteroid, Donaldjohanson, as a sort of test sequence before it visits seven Trojan asteroids. The asteroid, called DJ for short, is only 2.5 miles wide, with an extremely slow rotation that takes more than 10 days to complete.
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Peak of Lyrids meteor shower: April 21-22
Meteor showers happen every year or at regular intervals as Earth passes through the dusty wake of previous comets. Each time a comet zips through the inner solar system, the sun boils off some of its surface, leaving behind a trail of debris. When the planet intersects with the old comet detritus, the result can be a spectacular show, with sometimes up to hundreds of meteors visible per hour. The debris that creates the Lyrid meteor shower originates from comet Thatcher. The Lyrids, best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, will be active from April 17 to 26.
Peak of Eta Aquariids meteor shower: May 3-4
The Eta Aquariids meteor shower, best viewed from the southern tropics, produces strong "persistent trains" of shooting stars. The shower is the first of two each year created by Halley's Comet debris. The celestial event will be active from April 20 to May 21.
Peak of Delta Aquariids meteor shower: July 29-30
The Delta Aquariids are another shower best observed from the southern tropics. Conditions will be favorable for viewing meteors in the morning. Astronomers suspect the interacting debris causing the event came from the strange Comet Machholz. The event will be active from July 18 to Aug. 12.
Peak of Perseids meteor shower: Aug. 12-13
The popular Perseids, made up of remnants of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, is usually a spectacular show for the Northern Hemisphere. The meteor shower is active from July 17 to Aug. 23. But don't get your hopes up this year: Experts say the waning gibbous moon, more than 80 percent full, will allow only the brightest meteors to be seen.
Astrobotic attempts moon landing, again: fall
Astrobotic Technologies tried to become the first commercial company to land on the moon last year, but it lost its chance just a few hours into the flight because of a fuel leak. The company will try again this fall with its Griffin lander.
Originally, this mission was supposed to carry a NASA rover to drill for ice at the lunar south pole. But VIPER — short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — was cancelled due to cost overruns. Griffin will still launch without the rover as a flight demonstration of the lander and engines.
Peak of Orionids meteor shower: Oct. 22-23
The Orionids meteor shower marks the return of activity caused by Halley's Comet debris. In recent years, the displays have been pretty lackluster, but a waning crescent moon rising near dawn means moonlight won't obscure the shower in 2025. The celestial event will run from Oct. 2 to Nov. 12.
Peak of Southern Taurids meteor shower: Nov. 3-4
The Southern Taurids make up a complex meteor shower. Usually the displays are weak, but Taurid meteors are more numerous sometimes. Known as a "swarm year," 2025's event could offer more fireballs as Earth plows through a group of pebble-sized fragments from the Comet Encke. But given the moon's phase, there's a good chance moonlight will interfere with viewing most Taurids. Activity will go from Oct. 13 to Nov. 27.
Peak of the Leonids meteor shower: Nov. 16-17
The Leonids are some of the fastest-moving meteors, traveling up to 44 miles per second. The debris that causes the show comes from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, but the displays are usually pretty weak. The exceptions are years when the showers become so-called "meteor storms," but that won't likely happen again until perhaps 2035. The shower will be active from Nov. 3 to Dec. 2.
Peak of Geminids meteor shower: Dec. 12-13
Widely regarded as the best meteor shower of the year, the Geminids can be seen from most any part of the world, especially the Northern Hemisphere. The Geminids are denser meteors, allowing stargazers to see them as low as 29 miles above ground before the cosmic dust burns up. The shower will be active between Dec. 1 and 21.
This year the moon will have a waning crescent phase, which rises around 2 a.m. local time. Prior to that, views should be moon-free. You could glimpse bright meteors by facing a direction with the moon at your back, according to the American Meteor Society.
Peak of Ursids meteor shower: Dec. 21-22
The Ursid meteors are caused by debris from Tuttle's Comet, which orbits every 13 years. This shower, often overlooked because of its close timing to Christmas, can only be observed in the Northern Hemisphere. Because of a new moon at the shower's peak, moonlight won't interfere with the show. The event will be active from Dec. 16 to 26.
Other possible missions in 2025
The European Space Agency will send a satellite into orbit around the moon to serve as a communications relay for lunar navigation and telecommunications. Called Lunar Pathfinder, the satellite is expected to ride along with Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost vehicle. The Blue Ghost lander will continue to the moon's far side and deploy a communications terminal as well as a radio telescope experiment. The launch could happen as early as this year.
Sierra Space has been working on a spacecraft with the nostalgia of NASA's space shuttle program. Dream Chaser, a cargo space plane capable of runway landings, is set to launch for the first time to the International Space Station for a resupply mission sometime this year.
Following Intuitive Machines' second mission in early 2025, the company will also shoot for another later in 2025 or early 2026. If successful, the lunar landing mission, IM-3 or PRISM, will deploy rovers and study a so-called "lunar swirl."
