"To the Moon, an Asteroid, and Beyond: Major Space Missions Coming in 2025"

 A new year of space exploration is underway, with exciting missions on the horizon. These include multiple lunar landings, the launch of a cutting-edge cosmic observatory, and China's planned rendezvous with an asteroid.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander, seen here, will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Jan. 3, 2025, 5:18 AM GMT+6

Summary

The year ahead promises to be filled with groundbreaking space missions, with a host of robotic landers slated to launch to the moon in the coming months. Both China and India aim to make significant strides in space exploration this year. From lunar expeditions to a new space observatory and a mission to an asteroid, 2025 is shaping up to be a thrilling year for space exploration.

Not only NASA and commercial space companies in the United States will be busy, but China, Japan, and India are also preparing for significant milestones. Below are some of the most anticipated missions of the year.

Moon Exploration Continues

The moon will remain a focal point in 2025. Later this month, SpaceX will launch two missions to the lunar surface. One will carry the Blue Ghost lander, developed by Firefly Aerospace, to spend two weeks conducting scientific research. It will land in Mare Crisium, thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which aims to support the Artemis program by sending private companies to deliver cargo to the moon. Blue Ghost will carry 10 NASA experiments.

The second mission, launched alongside Blue Ghost, will carry the Resilience lander and the Tenacious “micro rover,” both developed by Japan’s ispace. They plan to land in the moon’s northern Mare Frigoris region about four to five months after launch. This mission follows last year's crash of ispace’s Hakuto lander.

Texas-based Intuitive Machines, the first American company to land a spacecraft on the moon in over 50 years, will also launch its next-generation lander to the lunar south pole. This mission will include a drill for lunar soil extraction and a robot designed to hop to a nearby crater for scientific study.

A New Observatory to Uncover the Universe’s Secrets

In late February, NASA will launch the SPHEREx mission, a space observatory designed to map the entire sky in optical and near-infrared light. SPHEREx will observe over 100 million stars in the Milky Way and more than 450 million other galaxies, as well as search for signs of life, including water and organic molecules. The mission aims to offer new insights into galaxy formation and the origins of the universe.

Return of NASA Astronauts from the ISS

In March, two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June due to technical issues with their Boeing spacecraft, will finally return to Earth. Their original mission was delayed, and they will now come back aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other crew members after spending more than nine months in space.

India’s Expanding Space Program

India aims to make significant progress with its human spaceflight program in 2025. Shubhanshu Shukla, an astronaut from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is set to travel to the ISS on a commercial mission with Axiom Space, in collaboration with Poland and Hungary. The crew will spend up to 14 days aboard the ISS, with the launch expected no earlier than spring. India is also working on developing its own crewed spacecraft, with plans for a launch in 2026.

Private Space Station Plans

California-based startup Vast is preparing to launch its commercial space station, Haven-1, into orbit later this year. The private outpost will accommodate four astronauts on missions lasting up to 30 days. Initially, it will function independently, but plans are in place to connect it to a larger module in the future.

China’s Mission to an Asteroid

China continues to push the boundaries of space exploration. This spring, it plans to launch the Tianwen-2 mission to collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa, which some scientists believe could be a piece of the moon. The spacecraft will return samples to Earth in 2026, before using Earth’s gravity to slingshot itself toward the comet 311P/PANSTARRS in the mid-2030s. This mission will follow China’s recent successes in returning samples from the moon’s far side, landing a rover on Mars, and completing its Tiangong space station.

In conclusion, 2025 promises to be a year packed with remarkable achievements in space exploration, with missions to the moon, the origins of the universe, and beyond.