A look at the skies: Here’s every major US space launch planned for 2025

Two major space launches in two days have given 2025 an exciting start. The The Blue Ghost lunar probe is on its way to the moonand just one day after leaving Earth, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin launched its big rocket, called New Glenits name in honor of American space legend John Glenn.

Space agencies from around the world launched a total of 244 successful missions into orbit or space in 2024, which is the most in history. The US led the way with over half of those launches. Dozens of space launches are already planned for 2025, following Blue Ghost and New Glenn.

Want to watch takeoff? Many of them probably will be transmitted by NASA or from the YouTube channels of individual companies such as SpaceX. Space launches are finicky and dates often change with little warning. But if you want to keep an eye on the skies in 2025, the list below should help.

January

Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 1 & Hakuto-R M2 Resilience

Launch date: Launched successfully on January 15th
Organization: SpaceX / NASA / Firefly Aerospace
Start Site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5

This unmanned mission which started on jan 15will carry Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar module to the Moon, along with a payload of 10 NASA instruments designed to measure various metrics on the lunar surface, including position and navigation data, regolith behavior, and Earth’s magnetosphere.

New Glenn’s inaugural launch

Launch date: It successfully launched on January 16
Organization: Blue Origin/NASA
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glenn
Start 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 January 13. However, there was a problem with the vehicle’s subsystem that would have taken too long to fix on the launch pad, so Blue Origin rescheduled the launch and successfully reached orbit on January 16. In addition to the inaugural launch, the payload included the Blue Ring Pathfinder, which was to demonstrate its ability to communicate from orbit to the ground.

Read more: The new Glenn Rocket launch marks a big moment for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

February

Lunar Trailblazer & Nova-C IM-2

Launch date: February 27
Organization: SpaceX / NASA / Intuitive Machines
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida

This mission will take Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar rover to the Moon for its second mission. The trip will also include NASA’s PRIME-1 payloadwhich will drill into the Moon and use a mass spectrometer to analyze materials below the surface.

SPHEREx & PUNCH

Launch date: 25 Feb
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Vandenberg SFB, California

SpaceX is ready to send its Falcon 9 to the moon with NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH. SPHEREx is a two-year mission that will launch a satellite capable of detecting near-infrared light and optical light to collect data. PUNCH is four suitcase-sized satellites that will monitor the Sun’s corona to detect coronal mass ejections so they can eventually predict when they will occur.

March

Crew-10

Launch date: March 25
Organization: SpaceX/NASA/ROSCOSMOS/JAXA
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

A crewed flight to the International Space Station will include US astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, Russian astronaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. After arriving at the ISS, Crew-9, along with Starliner astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore, will return to Earth.

Project Kuiper (Vulcan #1 and Vulcan #2)

Launch date: TBA
Organization: United Launch Alliance / Kuiper Systems (Amazon)
Rocket: Vulcan VC6L and Atlas V 551
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The first two launches of Project Kuiper are scheduled for March 2025. Kuiper Systems is a subsidiary of Amazon and plans to launch a total of 3,276 satellites into orbit for broadband internet access to compete with companies like SpaceX. There will be a number of them in 2025. and beyond, but this project is scheduled to begin in March 2025.

Blue Moon Pathfinder

Launch date: TBA
Organization: Blue Origin
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glenn
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

Blue Origin will finally begin testing its Blue Moon Pathfinder MK1 lunar lander. It’s not going to the moon yet, but Blue Origin launches always get a lot of press before they go up. Ultimately, Blue Origin wants to use Pathfinder to take supplies to the moon.

Fram2

Exact date: TBA
Organization: SpaceX
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Fram2 mission is a crewed mission that will take five passengers around the Earth’s polar caps. During the five-day mission, the crew will take the first-ever X-ray of a person while in space, along with more research on how spaceflight affects the human body. They will also study STEVE, or Great improvement in heat radiation ratewhich is a band of hot gases that light up the night sky similar to the aurora borealis. The crew will consist of Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge.

April

Axiom Space Mission 4

Exact date: TBA
Organization: SpaceX / Axiom Space
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Start site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

Axiom Space Mission 4 will send four people to the International Space Station, where they will stay for just over a week. The crew includes retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, Polish engineer Sławosz Uznanski and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu.

May

EWS OD-1

Exact date: TBA
Organization: Northrop Grumman Space Systems
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Start Site: Vandenberg SFB, California

The EWS OD-1 mission will deploy Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System into low Earth orbit as a technical demonstration, allowing various branches of the US military to evaluate its effectiveness as a weather satellite for the Department of Defense.

June

USSF-106

Exact date: TBA
Organization: United Launch Alliance
Rocket: Vulcan VC4S
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

This is a mission for the United States Space Force. Will deploy NTS-3 navigation satellite together with NASA’s SunRISE minisatelliteswhich will study solar activity. Other payloads are planned for this launch but have not yet been announced.

EscaPADE

Exact date: TBA
Organization: Blue Origin/NASA
Rocket: New Glen
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics (EscaPADE) Researchers mission is a joint venture between Blue Origin and NASA that will send scientific instruments to Mars to study our red neighbor. The instruments will study the transfer of energy from the solar wind through the magnetosphere of Mars. This is one of Blue Origin’s biggest launches of the year.

July

Crew-11

Exact date: TBA
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Crew-11 flight will carry four more astronauts to the ISS in July 2025. So far, the exact launch date is not set in stone and nor the crew. However, it will be just like the Crew-10 launch, where four astronauts will go to the ISS to conduct research and relieve the previous crew.

September

STP-S29A

Exact date: TBA
Organization: Northrop Grumman Space Systems / US Department of Defense
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Start Site: Vandenberg SFB, CA

The STP-S29A is quite a mission by the US Department of Defense, which will see Northrop Grumman launch several low-Earth orbit technology demonstrations. Included in the payload are CubeSats worth 200 kilograms — very small satellites — for testing purposes. In addition STPSat-7 will also be deployed that will track and catalog orbital debris.

September

IMAP

Exact date: TBA
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The IMAP mission is a joint venture between SpaceX and NASA that will see the deployment of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, another tool to measure how the solar winds affect things in and around Earth. The the probe contains 10 instruments which make different measurements. In addition, the mission will carry a small lunar orbiter called the Lunar Trailblazer, a a solar sail called the Solar Cruiser and a weather satellite to study ultraviolet emissions in the Earth’s exosphere.

October

TIS-2

Exact date: TBA
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Start Site: Cape Canaveral, Florida

The Sensor for total and spectral solar radiation 2 is a NASA probe that will measure the incoming energy from the Sun to Earth through solar radiation measurements. This data will be added to the decades of other solar-related data NASA has to better understand how much energy is hitting Earth from the sun. TSIS-1 is aboard the ISS and measures similar criteria from there.