This past year brought us an abundance of news on the modern-day space race, with China, in particular, pulling further ahead after deploying several lunar missions in 2024, such as the Chang’e 6 probe and the proposed launcher that could harvest vital natural resources on the Moon and return them to Earth. Let’s look at the year ahead and see what 2025 has in store for the space race.
The Public Sector
In the U.S., the biggest mission NASA plans to launch is Artemis II, the first crewed mission under the Artemis umbrella. According to NASA, the Artemis mission is “exploring the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars.” Artemis II will not land on the Moon; instead, it is a fly-by mission to test the Orion spacecraft with people inside. It’s an important next step towards getting back into the space race.
China has plans to launch its Tianwen-2 probe in May 2025. The Tianwen-2 will head for an asteroid (named 469219 Kamo‘) that orbits Earth very closely. If successful, Tianwen-2 will collect samples and conduct surface analyses to “gain primordial information about the solar system’s formation and evolution and even the origin of life on Earth.”
Towards the end of 2025, the European Space Agency is planning its first tests of an unmanned, reusable spaceplane called the Space Rider. The craft will be in orbit for a short period and function as a robotic laboratory. While in orbit, “customers will be able to complete technology demonstrations and science experiments, whether within pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, or robotic exploration and have the ability to bring them back to Earth.”
The Private Sector
Space travel has become increasingly commercialized, and it seems that 2025 will continue the trend. NASA will continue to work with SpaceX to transport astronauts to the ISS, with Crew-10 scheduled for early 2025 and Crew-11 scheduled for later in the year. SpaceX also has plans to aggressively test their Starship rocket, with a whopping 25 test flights approved for 2025 (for reference, the FAA had previously capped the number at 5). Finally, SpaceX’s Starlink has plans to activate its “direct-to-cell” service in early 2025. Without question, it will be quite a busy year for Mr. Musk’s ventures into space.
As one of Starlink’s main competitors, Amazon also plans to deploy Project Kuiper, its satellite-based internet service. Behind Starlink, Amazon will begin launching its network of satellites in early 2025 and make the network available to customers later in the year.
While the public sector has been focusing on the Moon and Mars missions, another interesting mission in 2025 is the Venus Life Finder (VLF). A joint effort between MIT and Rocket Lab, the VLF is the first private mission to Venus and is set to launch as early as January 2025. The VLF will carry a probe to Venus and use it to scan the planet’s upper atmosphere for possible signs of life.
Finally, 2025 may also bring us the first commercial space station. The ISS has been a long-standing fixture in the world of space research, representing a cooperative effort between several nations. However, it is slated to be decommissioned in 2030. With the imminent closure of the ISS drawing closer, a company called Vast has plans to fill the gap with its own privatized space station, Haven-1. Like the ISS, it will function as an “innovation lab for private astronauts and government missions.”
It’s hard to say for certain what 2025 will bring, but it’s already shaping up to be an interesting year for space science! And if you’re interested in the modern-day space race taking a bad turn, be sure to check out my novel, Dragon on the Far Side of the Moon.