Big rockets, a big telescope and big changes in space await in '25

Our species called this latest 366-day journey around the sun "2024" and packed into it a ton of astronomical and spaceflight excitement.

- MICHAEL ROSTON & KATRINA MILLER

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? We'll let you be the judge of how enthusiastic to get about the events you can expect on the launchpads and in the night sky.

Jeff Bezos enters the arena

Through SpaceX, Elon Musk has dominated spaceflight around the planet in recent years. But the extraplanetary ambitions of the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could present a challenge to Musk 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, where Bezos is still executive chair. 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.

Rubin's first light