Big Rockets, a Big Telescope and Big Changes in Space Await in 2025

Thanks to SpaceX, Elon Musk has dominated spaceflight around the planet in recent years. But the off-planetary ambitions of the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could be a problem soon to Mr. Musk.

The space company Blue Origin, founded by Bezos, has powerful rocket called New Glenn it can finally We’ll get off the ground in 2025. Like SpaceX Falcon 9The upper stage is designed to be completely reusable, so it can fly again and again and reduces the cost of launches. The rocket could launch national security satellites for the US military and spacecraft for NASA, including orbiters to Mars and lunar ships.

Another thing New Glenn will supply is satellites for Amazon, where Bezos is still executive chairman. companies Project Kuiper includes plans to create a mega-constellation of satellites transmitting the Internet from space, to compete with Starlink from SpaceX constellation. Amazon also plans to launch Kuiper satellites using rockets from many of Blue Origin’s competitors, including United Starter Alliance, Arianespace, France and even SpaceX.

Astronomers on a mountaintop in central Chile are completing construction of the Vera K. Rubin Observatory, which could take the first images of the night sky this year as early as July 4th.

The observatory, formerly the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, was renamed in 2020. in honor of Vera RubinWHO died at 88 in 2016. Dr Rubin’s work has convinced astronomers of the existence of dark matter, which makes up the vast majority of mass in the Universe, but no one knows what it is.

The name is appropriate. Using the world’s largest digital camera, scientists will use the Rubin Observatory to create time-lapse footage of the southern sky. Such images will help researchers understand the nature of dark matter, as well as dark energy, the unknown force pushing the cosmos apart. The vast array of data will also help reveal the birth story of our galaxy and catalog the asteroids and comets in our solar system, including those that could one day crash into Earth.

Luna and Trump will return

Despite all this potential uncertainty, a series of robotic space missions to the Moon are planned for the beginning of the year. The first two – a pair of landing modules from the American company Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese company Ispace – will be launched. on the same SpaceX rocket already in mid-January. The Firefly mission will be the first flight of the Blue Ghost lander and will carry cargo paid for by NASA. Ispace’s lunar voyage will be its second attempt after the company’s first lander crashed to the surface of the Moon in 2023.

Later in the first quarter of the year, Intuitive Machines may try to send another robotic lander to the Moon after the company’s Odysseus lander. reached the surface intact but upside downin February last year. The company’s second lander, called Athena, will also carry NASA-funded instruments, including a drill that will try to find ice samples. Athena will use a SpaceX launch vehicle in conjunction with NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, an orbiter that will study water on the Moon.

Vigils for Voyagers 1 and 2

Voyagers 1 and 2 are launched, the twin spacecraft that inspired a generation of space explorers. in 1977. After decades of exploring the outer solar system before mapping the unknown reaches of interstellar space, two spacecraft have begun to show signs of age.

Early in their journey, the pair flew past Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 later visited Uranus and Neptune. But perhaps the mission’s most iconic gift to the world was a photograph of Earth, a tiny pixel against the backdrop of outer space, which prompted famed astronomer Carl Sagan to create the image.”Pale blue dot“

In recent years, each of the robotic explorers blinked in contact and out of contact with NASA. Voyager 2 connection was intentionally closed in 2020 for months, then lost by chance a couple of weeks into 2023 before it was restored.

On the other hand, Voyager 1 scared the mission specialists this year when it stopped sending data back to Earth. Instruments on both spacecraft were turned off to save power.

But NASA is not giving up on them yet. When they are eventually buried in the space between the stars, it will be a fitting resting place considering how the duo ventured where no other spacecraft has gone before.

India’s orbital target

India is focusing on human spaceflight. National Astronaut Corps member Shubhanshu Shukla will conduct up to 14 days this spring aboard the International Space Station during a commercial mission by Axiom Space.

Mr Shukla and his fellow Indian astronauts hope to be the first to launch their homegrown rockets into low Earth orbit. India said In December, the program’s orbiter, known as Gaganyaan, was preparing for a test launch without astronauts on board. A successful flight could pave the way for the launch of a manned Indian astronaut as early as 2026.

New milestones and a new spaceship

SpaceX wowed the world in November with the flight of Starship 5, the most powerful rocket ever built. Expect the company to try to emulate the amazing chopsticks move of its massive Super Heavy booster. SpaceX may also try to catch the Starship booster after it completes its orbit around Earth and returns to the South Texas launch pad for the first time. SpaceX said it aims for 25 launches Starship in 2025 while he prepares the spacecraft land astronauts on the moon under the company’s contract with NASA.

Other new rockets and spacecraft could take flight in 2025.

One of them Neutron, reusable rocket is being developed by Rocket Lab, a company based in New Zealand. The company regularly launches satellites into orbit on board. small electron rocketand will be able to conduct the first flight of the new machine from the spaceport in Virginia.

Another Dream Chaser, space plane built by Sierra Space. After delays in 2024, the company hopes to deliver cargo to the ISS for the first time this year.