2025 was a busy with advancements and a few setbacks in space science and the space industry.
New missions continued to expand our understanding of the Sun, astronomers tracked a rare visitor from beyond our solar system, and countries and companies around the world continued to pick up the pace of launches.
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Exploring the Sun and the Solar System
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) made major progress in studying the Sun, one of the most powerful yet least understood objects in our solar system.
NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission launched in 2025 alongside NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope. SPHEREx is designed to map the entire sky in infrared light, helping astronomers study how galaxies form and how water and organic molecules are distributed through space.
PUNCH is made up of four small satellites that work together to observe the Sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona. By tracking how material flows away from the Sun, PUNCH is helping scientists better understand how the solar wind forms and how space weather can affect satellites, astronauts, and power systems on Earth.
ESA’s PROBA-3 mission also focused on the Sun with a pair of spacecraft flying in precise formation to study the Sun’s outer atmosphere for extended periods of time. The mission is expected to improve understanding of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), huge bursts of solar material that can trigger auroras and disrupt communications on Earth.
ESA’s Solar Orbiter continued its close-up study of the Sun as well. Using repeated gravity assists from Venus, the spacecraft tilted its orbit throughout the year, enabling observations of never before seen areas around the Sun’s poles
A Rare Visitor From Interstellar Space
In 2025, astronomers also closely observed Comet 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected passing through our solar system. Telescopes around the world, along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, studied the comet as it raced through the inner solar system.
Data from ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which helped refine measurements of the comet’s path, showed that it originated far beyond our solar system, likely from elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy. At more than 7 billion years old, 3I/Atlas is older than the solar system itself.
Stepping stones to the Moon
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander successfully touched down in the Moon’s Mare Crisium region. The mission returned more than 100 gigabytes of data, including high-resolution images and a striking view of sunrise on the lunar surface.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines launched its IM-2 mission, which reached the Moon but tipped onto its side during landing. While the spacecraft remained partially operational, its position limited the amount of science it could complete.
Japan’s Hakuto-R Mission 2 crashed during its landing attempt, and NASA lost contact with its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft earlier in the year.
More lunar missions are planned for 2026 including Artemis II with North Carolina's Christina Koch aboard.
Rockets and the Space Business in 2025
Launch pace picked up again in 2025 with 330 launches globally, up by 69 and continuing a success rate of 96%. More than half of those launches were from U.S. launch pads, China accounted for roughly a quarter, and Russia’s launch count continued to trail, a trend that began more than a decade ago.
2026 will be even more challenging as the Russian space agency works to repair damage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan during a crewed launch to the International Space Station on Thanksgiving Day. Repair crews are reportedly working two shifts a day to restore full launch capability “by late February” according to Roscosmos.
SpaceX continued progress in development of the massive Starship rocket, with a pair of successful launches to end the year. Starship is planned to play a key role in missions to the Moon and Mars.
Blue Origin started the year reaching orbit with its powerful New Glenn rock it on its debut flight. The second and final flight of the year launched NASA’s ESCAPADE mission toward Mars and successfully landed its booster on a drone ship. This important milestone gives NASA and other customers another reusable heavy-lift rocket option alongside SpaceX.
Blue Origin also closed out the year by appointing Tory Bruno to lead its newly formed National Security Group. Bruno previously served as CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. ULA retired its Atlas V rocket in 2024 after nearly two decades of service and a nearly perfect reliability record.