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To kick off 2025, Via Satellite’s annual roundup of Top Launches to Watch is back, highlighting some of the top commercial satellites expected to launch this year. This list is not exhaustive.
But first, a quick recap of 2024. We saw quite a few of the satellites on last year’s list take off throughout 2024 — Not just two, but four satellites for Maxar’s WorldView Legion; Ovzon 3 for Swedish operator Ovzon; the seventh and eighth satellites in SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation; the two-satellite Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ABSM); as well as five BlueBirds for AST SpaceMobile and four MicroGEOS for Astranis.
Although Thuraya 4 didn’t launch before the end of the year, SpaceX launched the satellite for Space42 on Friday. The mobile satellite services (MSS) satellite is now on the way to its final orbit.
A few satellites from last year’s list are still on the ground — Amazon Kuiper satellites and Viasat-3 F3.
2024 was also a big year for new rockets and other launch milestones. We saw the first launch of the Ariane 6 and Vulcan Centaur rocket, and Starship made considerable progress through four flight tests.
In last year’s roundup, I wrote that 2024 would be a big year for Amazon’s Project Kuiper. Yet the constellation is still on the ground after not kicking off launches in 2024. In June, when the first full Kuiper launch slipped to the fourth quarter of 2024, Amazon said it was still on track to meet its target of offering service to customers in 2025.
Amazon has made a huge investment into the constellation, ramping up manufacturing in Washington, and starting work on a second satellite processing facility in Florida. All eyes are on the company to see how the retail and cloud services giant (with AWS) will shake up competition in LEO broadband.
Meanwhile, the timeline to meet its FCC commitment keeps getting tighter. Amazon faces an FCC deadline to have half of the 3,232-satellite constellation launched by July 2026.
Viasat has been dealing with the loss of expected capacity on ViaSat-3 since the satellite’s shocking failure in 2023. The upcoming launch of the other two satellites in the constellation, F2 and F3, will give the operator needed capacity.
The F3 satellite, which has a different antenna supplier than the one affected by the anomaly, was expected to launch in 2024, but it did not. According to Viasat’s latest fleet deployment plan, both satellites are expected to enter service in 2025.
ViaSat-3 F2 will be launched over the Americas and is expected to enter service in late 2025. ViaSat-3 F3 will be launched over the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to enter service in mid- to late-2025, according to the operator’s recent quarterly report.
SES’s O3b mPOWER deployment continues in 2025 with satellites nine through 11 set to launch, according to SES’s latest fleet deployment schedule. The Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation entered service in April of 2024 with six satellites, and the seventh and eighth are on their way to final orbit after a December launch. Manufacturer Boeing continues production, integration, and testing of the three satellites and plans to deliver them in the first half of 2025.
Lockheed Martin expects the first LM 400 satellite to launch as a tech demonstration in 2025, Defense Daily reported in November. The satellite is described as a refrigerator-sized mid-class bus with more payload power than smaller satellites, yet more agility than larger systems. Lockheed expects to launch the first LM 400 in the first half of 2025 on a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket.
After launching the first slate of commercial satellites in 2024, AST SpaceMobile plans to continue ramping up this year for its satellite direct-to-cellular broadband network. While AST SpaceMobile has not published a specific deployment plan, the company has stated that it has launch contracts in place to launch up to 45 Block 2 BlueBird satellites through 2025 and 2026, with options to expand that further.
Where are the software-defined satellites? The Airbus OneSat and the Space Inspire platform from Thales Alenia Space secured a number of orders from major satellite operators in the last few years, but none have been delivered yet. When the first slate of OneSats were sold in 2019 and 2020 to Inmarsat, Optus, and Intelsat, the satellites were projected to launch in 2023.
Both Airbus and Thales Alenia Space have experienced headwinds in their space segments with cost overruns and layoffs, and are confirmed to be exploring a merger dealing with space capabilities. It remains to be seen if one of the large, software-defined satellites will launch in 2025.
This year will likely see a number of new rocket debuts. Rocket Lab has targeted its larger, more capable Neutron rocket to debut in 2025. Stoke Space is targeting an initial launch of the Nova rocket this year, and Orbex expects to launch from the SaxaVord spaceport in Scotland as well.
There are lots of other exciting missions on deck, with lunar missions, civil science, and commercial space stations. Space.com compiled a roundup of more exciting missions set for 2025.
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