Synchronize your agenda with the solar system

Via SpaceX, Elon Musk has dominated the planet in recent years. But the extractary ambitions of the founder of the Amazon Jeff Bezos can be a challenge to Mr. Musk soon.

The space company started by Mr. Bezos, Blue Origin, has one Powerful rocket called New Glenn That is finally possible Get off the ground in 2025. Pretend SpaceX’s Falcon 9The booster phase is designed to be fully reusable, so that it can fly over and over again and reduce the costs of launches. The rocket could launch National Security Satellites for the US Army and Space Moon Landers.

Another thing that new Glenn will wear are satellites for Amazon, where Mr Bezos is still executive chairman. The company Project Kuiper includes plans to build a mega constellation of satellites that radiates the internet from space, in competition with SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. Amazon is also planning to launch Kuiper -Satellites with the help of rockets from many competitors from Blue Origin, including United Launch Alliance” Arianespace of France And even SpaceX.

Rubin’s first light

Astronomers on top of a mountain in Central Chili laps the construction of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which can catch his first view of the night sky this year, already in 4 July.

In the past, the large synoptic survey, the observatory was renamed in 2020 To honor Vera RubinWHO died at 88 in 2016. The work of Dr. Rubin convinced astronomers of the existence of dark matter, who make up a vast majority of the masses in the universe, but nobody knows what it is.

The name is appropriate. With the largest digital camera in the world, scientists will use the Rubin Observatory to take a time-lapse film photo of the southern sky. Such images would help researchers understand the nature of dark matter, as well as dark energy, the unknown power that pushes the cosmos apart. The designation of data will also help to reveal the story of the birth of our Galaxy and to catalog asteroids and comets in our solar system, including those who could hit the earth one day.

The Moon and Trump are coming back

During the first administration of Donald J. Trump, the American space policy was again focused on exploring Moon. President Biden’s administration has run that direction. But while Mr. Trump returns to the White House in January, the existing space plans of the country can be applied by the Expensive Rocket NASA has developed Already more than a decade. As an alternative, Mr. Trump could shift NASA’s Focus of NASA more radically Send people to Mars. Reaching the red planet is the Primary goal of Mr. Muskwho advised the chosen president.

Despite all that potential uncertainty, a series of robot room missions is planned for the moon at the beginning of the year. The first two, a few landers from the American Company Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese company ISPACE, will launch On the same SpaceX rocket As soon as mid -January. Firefly’s mission will be the first trip of the Blue Ghost Lander and will transport freight that was paid by NASA. The Moon Journey of ISPACE will be the second attempt After the first Lander of the company crashed In the surface of the moon in 2023.

Later in the first quarter of the year, intuitive machines can try to put another robot land on the moon after the Odysseus Lander of the company reached the surface intact, but tiltedLast February. The second Lander of the company, called Athena, will also transport instruments funded by NASA, including an exercise that will try to find samples of ice. Athena will share a SpaceX launcher with Lunar Trailblazer, a NASA orbiter who will study water on the moon.

Wake for voyagers 1 and 2

Voyagers 1 and 2, Twin Spacecraft that inspired a generation of cosmic miracles were launched In 1977. After decades of exploring the outer solar system before the unknown limit of the interstellar space is mapped, the two spacecraft show signs of age.

Early in their journey the couple went past Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 later visited Uranus and Neptunus. But perhaps the most iconic gift from the mission to the world was a photo of the earth, a small pixel against the vastness of space, causing the famous astronomer Carl Sagan to lead the image “Light -blue dot. “

In recent years, The robot -like explorers each have blinked in and out of contact NASA. Communication with Voyager 2 was deliberately closed Months in 2020, Then lost accidentally a few weeks in 2023 before it was recovered.

Voyager 1, on the other side, Gave a shock this year When it stopped sending data back to the earth. Instruments on both spacecraft are closed to save electricity.

But NASA does not give them up yet. When they are eventually buried in the space between the stars, it would have been seen an appropriate resting place how the duo has been daring where no other spacecraft had been.

India’s orbital objective

The space program of India has landed a robot on the moon and place A spacecraft in a job around Mars. The most direct priorities of the country are much closer to the earth, but that does not mean that they are less ambitious.

India focuses on the space travel of man. A member of the Astronaut Corps of the Nation, Shubhanshu Shukla, is published up to 14 days this spring On board the international space station during a commercial mission with the company Axiom Space.

Mr. Shukla and his colleague -India astronauts hope to be the first to launch to the low earth rink on his own soil rockets. Said India In December, an orbital vehicle from that program, known as Gaganyaan, was prepared for a test launch without astronauts on board. A successful flight could already lead the road to a launch of the Indian Astronaut of the Indian Astronaut in 2026.

New milestones and new spacecraft

SpaceX surprised the world in November during flight 5 of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built. Expect the company to try to repeat the beautiful “chopsticks” from its huge super heavy booster. SpaceX can also try to catch the upper stage Starship vehicle after it has completed a track of the earth and returns to the launch location in southern Texas for the first time. SpaceX said it was aiming For 25 launches of spaceship in 2025 while it prepares the spacecraft To land astronauts on the moon Under the company’s contract with NASA.

Other new rockets and spacecraft can flights in 2025.

One is Neutron, a reusable rocket Developed by Rocket Lab, which was founded in Nieuw -Zeeland. The company is wearing routine satellites to turn around on board his Small electron rocketAnd could perform a first flight of the new vehicle from a launch location in Virginia.

Another is Dream hunter, a space aircraft Built by Sierra Space. After delays in 2024, the company hopes that this year it will carry the load to the ISS for the first time.