Space agents from around the world have launched a total of 244 successful missions to orbit or space in 2024, the largest number in history. The United States led more than half of the launches. There are already plans to release dozens of spaces in 2025.
Want to see the lift? Many of these may be streamed by YouTube channels from individual companies such as NASA or SpaceX. Space launches are picky, and dates usually change with little warning. However, if you want to follow the sky in 2025, the list below should help.
January
In December 2024, a blue ghost moon lander was seen at the Firefly Aerospace headquarters in Cedar Park, Texas.
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 1 and Hakuto-R M2 Elasticity
Start date: Successfully launched on January 15
organize: SpaceX / NASA / Firefly Aerospace
Launching site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
The unegged mission, launched on January 15, will bring Firefly Aerospace’s blue ghost moon lander to the moon, as well as the payloads of 10 NASA instruments, aiming to measure various indicators on the moon’s surface, including location and navigation data, Regolith behavior and Earth’s magnetosphere.
New Glenn’s inauguration conference
Start date: Successfully launched on January 16
organize: Blue Origin / NASA
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glen
Launching site: Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Blue Origin’s first test flight of its New Glenn rocket was originally scheduled for Jan. 13. However, a vehicle subsystem issue sprung up that would’ve taken too long to troubleshoot on the launch pad, so Blue Origin rescheduled the launch, and it successfully reached orbit on Jan. 16. In addition to the inaugural launch, the payload included Blue Ring Pathfinder, which was set to demonstrate its ability to communicate from orbit to ground.
Read more: The new Glenn Rocket launch is a big moment for Jeff Bezos’ blue origins
February
Lunar Trail Blazers and Nova-C IM-2
Start date: Successfully launched on February 27
organize: SpaceX / NASA / Intuitive Machines
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launching site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
The Lunar Trail Blazers and Nova-C IM-2 missions were successfully unraveled on February 27. Although part of the Nova-C IM-2 is still accessible, Lunar Trailblazer lost communication with NASA and is currently lost in space. The success of the mission will be entirely determined by whether NASA can reconnect, which the agency is still trying to do.
This mission will bring the intuitive machine, Nova-C Lunar Lander, to the moon for a second mission. The trip also includes NASA’s Prime-1 payload, which will drill into the moon and use a mass spectrometer to analyze the material below the surface.
Spherex & Punch
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft took off in October 2022 at the launch complex 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Canaveral, Florida.
Start date: Successfully launched on March 11
organize: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launching site: Vandenberg SFB, CA
SpaceX and NASA initially planned to launch Spherex and Punch Missions in the last week of February 2025, but were postponed to the second week of March.
SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit with NASA’s Spherex and Punch. Spherex is a two-year mission that will launch satellites that can detect near-infrared light and optical light to collect data. Punch is a four-car suitcase-sized satellite that will monitor the sun’s corona to detect coronary ejections to ultimately be able to predict when they occur.
Moving
CREW-10
Start date: March 14
organize: SpaceX / NASA / Roscosmos / Jaxa
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
On March 14, the crew flight to the International Space Station was successfully launched with American astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian astronaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. Once they reach ISS, Crew-9, and Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will return to Earth. Williams and Willmore have made nearly constant headlines since their trip to ISS in June, from expected eight days to eight months or more, but with the Crew-10 they should be home soon.
Read more: NASA CREW-10 astronauts launch ISS on SpaceX Rocket
Kuiper Project (Vulcan #1 and Vulcan #2)
Kuiper Project is a subsidiary of Amazon and has a large launch program.
Start date: TBA
organize: United Launch Alliance/Cooper System (Amazon)
Rocket: Vulcan VC6L and Atlas V 551
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
The first two projects released by Kuiper are scheduled to be held in March 2025. KuiperSystems is an Amazon subsidiary and plans to push a total of 3,276 satellites into orbit for broadband Internet access to compete with satellites like SpaceX. There will be many such rises throughout 2025 and beyond, but the project is scheduled to begin in March 2025.
Blue Moon Pathfinder
Start date: TBA
organize: blue
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glen
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
Blue Origin will eventually begin testing on its Blue Moon Pathfinder MK1 Lunar Lander. It hasn’t reached the moon yet, but the blue release will always get a lot of pressure before it rises. Eventually, Blue Origin hopes to use Pathfinder to bring supplies to the moon.
FRAM2
Exact date: TBA
organize: SpaceX
Rocket: Falcon 9.5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
The FRAM2 mission is a crew mission that will take away five passengers from Earth’s polar hats. During the five-day mission, the crew will conduct the first ever human X-ray in space, as well as more research on how space flight can affect the human body. They will also study Steve or the strong heat emission speed enhancement, a shimmer of hot gas that can illuminate the night sky, similar to Aurora Borealis. The crew will be composed of Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge.
April
Axiom Space Mission 4
Exact date: TBA
organize: SpaceX / Axiom Space
Rocket: Falcon 9.5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
Axiom Space Mission 4 will send four people to the International Space Station, where they will be there for more than a week. The crew included retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, Polish engineer Sławosz Uznański and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu.
possible
EWS OD-1
Exact date: TBA
organize: Northrop Grumman Space System
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Launching site: Vandenberg SFB, CA
The EWS OD-1 mission will deploy electro-optical/infrared weather systems into low-Earth orbit as a technical demonstration, allowing various branches of the U.S. military to evaluate its performance as a Department of Defense weather satellite.
June
USSF-106
Exact date: TBA
organize: United Launch Alliance
Rocket: Vulcan VC4
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
This is the mission of the US Space Force. It will deploy the NTS-3 navigation satellite along with NASA’s Sunrise Mini-Satellite, which will study solar energy activities. Other payloads planned to be released, but have not been announced yet.
mischief
One of the largest launch conferences of Blue Origin, scheduled for June.
Exact date: TBA
organize: Blue Origin / NASA
Rocket: New Glen
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorer (Escapade) mission is a joint venture between Blue Origin and NASA, which will send scientific tools to Mars to study our red neighbors. These instruments will study solar energy transmission through the magnetosphere of Mars. This is one of the biggest launches of the year for Blue Origin.
July
Crew 11
Exact date: TBA
organize: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9.5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
Crew Flight 11 will take another four astronauts to the ISS in July 2025. At present, the exact release date has not been set on the stone, and neither has the crew. But, like the Crew-10 launch, four astronauts will head to the International Space Station for research and lighten previous crew members.
September
STP-S29A
Exact date: TBA
organize: Northrop Grumman Space Systems/U.S. Department of Defense
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Launching site: Vandenberg SFB, CA
The STP-S29A is a considerable mission for the U.S. Department of Defense and it will see Northrop Grumman launching some technical demonstrations to low-Earth orbit. The payload includes 200 kg of cubes – very small satellites – for testing purposes. In addition, STPSAT-7 will be deployed, which will track and directory track fragmentation.
September
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket takes off in June 2024.
IMAP
Exact date: TBA
organize: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9.5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL
The IMAP mission is a joint venture between SpaceX and NASA, which will see interstellar mapping and accelerated probe deployment, another tool to measure how the solar wind affects things around the planet. The detector contains 10 kinds of measuring instruments. In addition, the mission will house a small lunar orbiter called Lunar Trailblazer, a solar sail called Solar Cruiser and a weather satellite to study ultraviolet emissions in the outer layer of the Earth.
October
TSIS-2
Exact date: TBA
organize: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9.5
Launching site: Cape Canaveral, Florida
The sum of solar radiation sensor 2 is a probe of NASA, which will measure the energy input to the sun by solar irradiance measurement. These data will be added to decades of other Sun-related data, and NASA must better understand the energy that hits Earth from the Sun. TSIS-1 is on ISS and is measured similar criteria from there.
