Big rockets, a telescope & big changes in space await in 2025

Some key events to look forward to in space & astronomy

- MICHAEL ROSTON, KATRINA MILLER

OUR SPECIES CALLED this latest 366-day journey around the sun "2024" and packed into it a ton of astronomical and spaceflight excitement. A solar eclipse crossed North America. Two robotic landers reached the lunar surface, largely intact. The most powerful rocket booster ever built was caught by a pair of mechanical arms nicknamed "chopsticks." A journey began to Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa. And private astronauts conducted a daring spacewalk.

Can this revolution around the sun we name "2025" compare?

Jeff Bezos enters the arena

The extraplanetary ambitions of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could present a challenge to Elon Musk and SpaceX soon.

The space company started by Bezos, Blue Origin, has a powerful rocket called New Glenn that may at last get off the ground in 2025. Like SpaceX's Falcon 9, the booster stage is designed to be fully reusable so it can fly again and again and reduce the cost of launches. The rocket could launch national security satellites for the US military and spacecraft for NASA, including orbiters to Mars and moon landers. Another thing New Glenn will carry is satellites for Amazon. The company's Project Kuiper involves plans to build a mega-constellation of satellites beaming internet down from space, in competition with SpaceX's Starlink constellation. Amazon also plans to launch Kuiper satellites using rockets from many of Blue Origin's competitors, including United Launch Alliance, Arianespace of France and even SpaceX.

Rubin's first light

Astronomers atop a mountain in central Chile are wrapping up construction of the Vera C Rubin Observatory, which might capture its first views of the night sky this year, as early as July 4.