Space Race 2025: Multiple Agencies Set to Launch New Missions

What you’ll learn:

Insight into the space missions that will launch this year (2025).
The technology employed for those missions.
Their impact on future space exploration.

2025 is on course to be a banner year for space exploration. Space agencies and companies around the globe are expected to launch a variety of missions that will help expand our knowledge of the universe and pave the way to putting astronauts back on the Moon and beyond.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Project is in full throttle to carry out lunar missions using private companies, while the European Space Agency (ESA) looks to follow in the footsteps of SpaceX and Boeing by providing a new space plane it can reuse for routine space missions. This article looks at some of the more notable missions set to launch this year.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Project lays the groundwork for companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon to look for resources, test storage solutions, and carry out experiments designed to bolster the agency’s Artemis program. According to NASA, the companies involved will test technologies, demonstrate capabilities, and explore the Moon’s resources in preparation for human missions.

Current companies employing their tech for space and lunar missions include Firefly Aerospace Inc., which recently launched its Blue Ghost lander (Fig. 1) to Mare Crisium, a dark patch located at the edge of the Moon's visible hemisphere. The Blue Ghost lander is a modular platform that can be adapted for different payloads.

1. The Blue Ghost Lander is expected to bring a wealth of tools and instruments to the lunar surface to collect samples and more.

Firefly’s lander is currently on its way to the Moon, where it will deliver 10 science and technology instruments to the lunar surface. The commercial mission also includes Lunar PlanetVac, a vacuum technology designed to collect samples of the Moon’s surface.

Additional companies awarded contracts for NASA’s CLPS missions include the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., which will deliver its SERIES-2 lander to Schrödinger Basin on the Moon's far side this year (2025), along with several communication and data relay satellites for lunar orbit. Intuitive Machines is also expected to launch its IM-2 lander, which will carry its PRIME-1 drill to the lunar south pole and send a probe to Reiner Gamma, a magnetic anomaly located on the lunar near side.

On top of that, NASA 2025 mission sets include launching its Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory, which is designed to provide the first all-sky spectral survey. Over the next two years, the SPHEREx Observatory will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in the Milky Way to explore the origins of the universe.

European Space Agency’s Space Rider

The European Space Agency (ESA) is geared up for several planned space missions, too, with the launch of its Space Rider (Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) spaceplane that aims to bring affordable and routine access to space.

Space Rider (Fig. 2), a reusable spacecraft that’s similar to the Air Force’s tiny X-37 space shuttle, is designed to carry out various scientific experiments in low Earth orbit. The experiments include research in microgravity, which is the near-weightless environment of space. Scientists will also study how plants grow, how materials behave, and how biological processes occur in space.

2. The ESA’s Space Rider is Europe’s answer to the U.S. Air Force’s X-37 reusable space plane.

The craft will also demonstrate new technologies for future missions, including advanced telecommunication systems that are critical for maintaining communication with spacecraft over long distances. In addition, new robotic exploration tools will be tested for use on future missions to the Moon or Mars.

According to the ESA, Space Rider can accommodate up to 800 kg of payloads that can fit in the craft’s environmentally controlled cargo bay. It offers 1200 liters of payload volume and provides services that include 600 W of power along with thermal, control, data-handling, and telemetry capabilities. The ESA plans to launch Space Rider in the third quarter of this year (2025).

ispace M2/Resilience

Japan’s lunar exploration company ispace is set to launch its SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon Mission 2, which packs the company’s RESILIENCE lunar lander and TENACIOUS micro rover onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The ispace mission will study the lunar soil to understand its composition and properties (Fig. 3).

ispace Hakuto-R Lander — 3. The ispace missions will test the lunar soil to get a better understanding of its properties.

It will also perform a water-splitting test to produce oxygen and hydrogen. The test involves extracting water, in the form of ice, from the lunar surface, heating the water, and splitting the captured steam, much in the same way submarines get fresh water from Earth’s oceans. Those resources are ideal for enabling long-term lunar exploration.

The ispace mission will test new technologies as well, such as advanced navigation systems for precise landings and systems to operate the rover autonomously. These technologies are essential for future lunar exploration and could be used in missions to Mars.

China National Space Administration Tianwen-2

China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) expects to launch its Tianwen-2 mission of sending a spacecraft to the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa to collect samples of the heavenly body. The spacecraft will intercept the asteroid and perform remote-sensing observations in orbit using a nano-orbiter before landing on the asteroid's surface to collect a sample of 100 g (3.5 oz.) of regolith (rocks and dust) via a nano-lander (Fig. 4).

CNSA Tianwen-1 — 4. China’s Tianwen-2 mission will target a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples before heading on to another asteroid, where it will study the icy rock for a year.

Tianwen-2 will pack an array of scientific instruments for the mission, including a wide/narrow-angle multispectral and color camera, a thermal emission spectrometer, a visible/near-infrared imaging spectrometer, a mass spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a charged/neutral particle and dust analyzer.

Once the samples are collected, the spacecraft will return to Earth to drop off a return capsule with the collected samples. It will then conduct a gravity assist maneuver to propel the spacecraft toward the 311P/PANSTARRS asteroid to analyze the celestial body over the course of a year.

To the Moon and Beyond

These are just a few of the space missions that are expected to be carried out by several different space agencies and private companies in the name of exploration. The moon missions are designed to take advantage of its resources, with the long-term goal of using it as a stepping stone for Mars and deep space missions.

Today’s advances will enable future astronauts to work and live on the Moon without the costly endeavor of transporting those resources from Earth. These missions will also help unlock the secrets of our solar system and beyond so that scientists can gain a better understanding of the universe and advance our knowledge.