THIS year looks set to be another blockbuster year for daring space missions, from China’s asteroid retrieval to the first-ever private space station.
Here are some of the biggest space missions ahead.
China is set to launch the Tianwen-2 mission to sample near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3) in 2025.
The Tianwen-2 mission will see a spacecraft anchor down on the asteroid, which scientists believe could be a fragment of the Moon, to collect samples.
After delivering samples to Earth, the spacecraft will use our planet for a gravitational slingshot maneuver and set it on a course for main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS.
The sample phase is expected to last around 2.5years, with the spacecraft expected to arrive at 311P/PANSTARRS in the mid-2030s.
Following on from the Odysseus Moon landing in 2024, Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) will continue delivering commercial lunar landers.
The CLPS scheme is what brought Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander to the Moon in February 2024 – marking the first US Moon landing since 1972.
NASA has several CLPS missions planned for 2025: including deliveries by companies Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace.
Each mission will have a different end-goal, carrying out different experiments at various locations on the lunar surface.
The payloads will include experiments to study lunar geology, test new technologies for future human missions and gather data on the Moon’s environment.
Each mission will help inform Nasa on how can support permanent human habitation on the Moon.
As plans to retire the International Space Station unfold, one of the main contenders to replace the orbital outpost will launch no earlier than August 2025.
It is set to become the world’s first commercial crewed space station.
Haven-1, from private space company Vast, feels more like a luxury hotel than a space station with its sleek wood veneer slats, soft and padded white walls.
It even boasts a gym space and private rooms featuring entertainment and online communication tech to contact home.
It will eventually offer both astronauts and civilians 30-day orbital stays, high-tech research facilities and epic views.
Andrew Feustel, a veteran Nasa astronaut who has spent more than 225 days in space on the ISS, helped advise Vast on developing the interior.
Nasa is planning to de-orbit the aging International Space Station in 2031.
The space agency is considering a plan to crash the spacecraft back down on Earth into a so-called ‘space graveyard’.
Point Nemo, Latin for “no one”, is around 4,000 metres deep and further from land than any point on Earth, making it the ideal spot to crash defunct rockets and satellites.
Hundreds of spacecraft – mostly Russian – have been laid to rest there by Nasa and other space agencies since it was first used in 1971.
The plan is to slowly lower the space station’s altitude from its current spot 408km above ground.
Eventually, the Earth’s atmosphere will pull it in closer and faster, before crashing into the sea.
The iconic space station was launched back in 1998 and has welcomed more than 270 astronauts and space tourists during its time.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has tabled plans to conduct an orbital test flight of its uncrewed Space Rider spaceplane in the third quarter of 2025.
The reusable spacecraft is designed to carry out various scientific experiments in low Earth orbit, such as how plants and materials behave in microgravity.
Space Rider will also demonstrate new technologies for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
For example, it will test advanced telecommunication systems, which will be crucial for keeping contact with spacecraft and astronauts over long distances.
It will also test new robotic exploration tools for use on the Moon or Mars.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is plotting a groundbreaking test to transfer fuel from one Starship to another while docked in low Earth orbit.
The demonstration, scheduled for March 2025, will see two windowless Starship vehicles launch about three to four weeks apart.
The second Starship will serve as a refueling tanker for the first.
The 33-engine, $3billion mega-rocket is designed to transport up to 100 people from Earth to the moon and eventually Mars in the 2030s.
The refuelling process is essential if Starship is going to fulfil its goal of ferrying humans to Mars and beyond.
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