31.12.2024
As the year comes to an end, it is evident that as impressive as it was, this was a year in space exploration which is set to be outdone.
A record breaking launch cadence from Cape Canaveral. SpaceX catching a Starship Super Heavy booster in Texas. The first spacewalk by a private company. A mission to Europa. The troubled Starliner crewed flight that had to return without its astronauts. And Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket making progress. 2024 was an eventful year in space exploration.
However, the upcoming year has many ground-breaking missions already on tap. Here's some of what we can expect to see in space exploration in 2025.
Increased Florida launch cadence
With SpaceX continuously launching Falcon 9 rockets on Starlink and customer satellite deliveries and NASA missions − add in United Launch Alliance (ULA) launching the occasional Department of Defense mission, too − the Space Coast launch cadence has been rising over the past few years.
While 2023 saw a whopping 73 launches, 2024 shattered that record with more than 90 launches − even amidst two Falcon 9 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) groundings.
As of Friday, Dec. 27 the Space Coast had counted 91 launches.
With SpaceX continuing their Starlink internet constellation, and other launch providers such as Blue Origin starting launches from the Space Coast, 2025 could be a year where the launch record is again easily broken and then some.
Jared Isaacman as NASA Administrator
Jared Isaacman was recently nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the upcoming NASA administrator. If appointed, Isaacman will replace current administrator, Bill Nelson.
Isaacman founded financial company, Shift4, commanded the SpaceX Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions, and conducted the first-ever spacewalk by a private company. He is expected to bring big changes to NASA. Experts are keeping an eye on Artemis − NASA's much-delayed and hugely expensive return-to-the-moon mission to see if Isaacman rethinks this program.
Artemis II, the mission that will take astronauts around the moon, is now set for no earlier than 2026, with the Artemis III moon landing targeting no earlier than 2027. These dates were pushed back after NASA investigated the cracking of the Orion spacecraft's heatshield during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022.
SpaceX's Starship must also be ready to meet that 2027 deadline, as it will be utilized to land the Artemis III astronauts on the lunar surface.
A question has repeatedly come up: could SpaceX's Starship replace the giant Space Launch System rocket that NASA plans to carry Orion to the moon?
Starship progress toward coming to KSC
Locally, this coming year will bring answers to the outcome of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Space Force environmental reviews required ahead of the proposed Starship launches from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A, where a Starship tower already stands.
The reviews collected input from citizens and looked at the possible impacts to surrounding infrastructure, ecosystem and wildlife.
Meanwhile, an undisclosed $1.8 billion heavy-lift rocket infrastructure project is set to start in January. The project, known as Project Hinton, is forecast to create 600 local jobs with average annual wages of $93,000.
While the company behind the project remains disclosed, SpaceX's Starship could be a strong contender. The results of the Space Force and FAA environmental impact studies are to be released in 2025.
SpaceX's Starship is not just a vital tool for SpaceX's ambitious plan of reaching Mars, but has been contracted by NASA to land humans on the lunar surface during the Artemis III mission in 2027.
For now, SpaceX continues testing and improving Starship in Boca Chica, Texas. Flight 7 is anticipated in January, and the company plans eventually to be able to reuse both the booster and spacecraft. The reusability would drastically cut down on the cost of launching. It remains to be seen how far Starship development will come in 2025.
Blue Origin launch and NASA's Escapde
Blue Origin is aiming for a debut launch of their orbital New Glenn rocket by the end of the year. Assuming all goes well with the inaugural test flight, plans call for it to launch satellites, such Amazon's Kuiperinternet constellation of 3,232 satellites, as well as NASA's ESCAPADE mission to Mars no earlier than Spring of 2025.
This is Blue Origin's entry into the heavy-lift market, and could position the company as a competitor to SpaceX on multiple fronts. Blue Origin was founded by former CEO, Jeff Bezos.
ESCAPDE stands for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers. It will be a NASA science mission to study the magnetosphere of Mars, which is the magnetic layer that protects the planet from solar particles. Two identical orbiting spacecraft will observe how the magnetosphere interacts with solar wind.
Axiom-4
Axiom Space will continue with their private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Launched from Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Dragon, four astronauts will travel to the ISS on a science mission. This will be the fourth astronaut mission for the company.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Axiom Space is planning to build a space station which will attach to the ISS. This will allow for NASA to transition over before the 2030 deadline, when SpaceX is contracted to deorbit the aging ISS. The company is currently sending crews to the ISS as part of the development of the new space station.
Vast Space Station
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Vast Space is also planning to build a next generation space station. According to Vast, this is anticipated for no earlier than 2025 with the launch of Haven-1. Haven-1 will be able to support a crew of four private or government astronauts.
The next moduel, Haven-2, will be connected and the larger space station operational by approximately 2028. Vast plans for the completion of the nine moduel station by 2032.
Vast's website states: "Vast is developing humanity’s most capable space stations, pioneering the next giant leap toward long-term living and thriving in space."
Just recently, Vast tapped SpaceX to launch two private astronaut missions to the ISS. This is similar to Axiom's private missions to the ISS.
IM-2/Lunar Trailblazer
This mission will follow the Intuitive Machines-1 (IM-1) mission, which launched to the moon in early 2024, but tipped upon landing. While things didn't go quite as planned, the mission was the first successful lunar landing of a spacecraft built by a private company.
The IM-2 lander will head for a landing on the lunar south pole, using a drill and mass spectrometer to look at the makeup of the moon's subsurface. In simple terms, the mass spectrometer reveals what element is present by determining the mass of a molecule after converting it to a gas. NASA plans to send Artemis astronauts to the lunar south pole. While we do not know what IM-2 will find, it is suspected that there is water ice present on the moon's poles.
The IM-2 mission will carry with it NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Lunar Trailblazer, which is a small obiter that will look for the location and forms of water on the moon.
This mission is currently set for no earlier than early 2025.
Blue Ghost headed to moon
Firefly Aerospace is also set to provide a lunar lander which will carry 10 NASA payloads no earlier than January 2025. According to NASA, some of the investigations being conducted by Blue Ghost payloads include:
- Heat flow from the lunar interior
- Plume-surface interactions on lunar surface - how the rocket exhaust impacts the surface
- Electric and magnetic fields
- Sampling of the rocky material found on the moon, known as regolith
- Global Navigation Satellite System abilities
- Radiation tolerant computing - how cosmic radiation impacts instruments
- Impact of lunar dust on instruments
- Taking X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosphere
FRAM2 mission
SpaceX has plans for an upcoming private astronaut mission like no other. The FRAM2 mission will take four explorers on a mission to orbit the poles − an orbit never before traveled by astronauts. Instead of the typical orbit, the FRAM2 crew will orbit from pole to pole. The three to five day mission is set for no earlier than Spring 2025, and will launch from Florida on a SpaceX Dragon.
The crew is led by entrepreneur and polar explorer, Chun Wang. Also on the mission are: filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, polar explorer Eric Philips, and engineer/polar scientist, Rabea Rogge.
Quelle: Florida Today