Last year was a busy for space missions, and 2025 is no different.
Continuous development of new rockets will have heavy facilities in the next 12 months. For example, in the new year, SpaceX, SpaceX, is actually aiming to ramp the launch rate of its next generation starship rocket.
Since its first test flight in 2023, the 120-meter long starship, which includes the first-step super heavy booster and upper-phase starship spacecraft, has been washed away by six times. SpaceX now has a clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which is to launch a starbase on its seventh Test flight from the company's starbase site in Boka Chika, Texas.
The launch date is not yet to be confirmed, but in the report reported by the end of last year, Spacex is targeting on Saturday, January 11, for the seventh test flight of Starships.
Starsip launch is a great view, in which Super Heavy Booster makes a thrust-breaking of 17 million pounds at the time of launch. There is also an additional attraction of looking at the booster's return after the Starship Spacecraft is deployed in the class.
Unlike SpaceX's Working Falcon 9 Booster, which lands on the ground when returning, is using huge mechanical weapons on the SpaceX launch tower, which protects it before touching the ground, for “catching” super heavy boosters. It achieved amazing achievement in its first attempt in the fifth Test flight in October, but during the sixth flight in November, a discrepancy forced the booster to land into the Gulf of Mexico, from where it was later recovered.
NASA wants to use Spacex's starship vehicle for the moon, Mars and possibly beyond the crew and cargo flights. With increased tests, there is a possibility of seeing some big steps towards achieving starships in this year, which paves the way for its first operating flight.
Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket
Another rocket launch to look out for this month is Blue Origin's inaugural flight of its first orbital rocket, The New Glenn.
So far, the Spaceflight Company led by Jeff Bezos has only launched its sub-shaped rocket on the edge of the space on tourism flights.
The new glenn operated by B-4 engines, a two-step, heavy-oriented rocket with a 3.85 million pound thrust at the launch, is more than double from SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, which produces 1.7 million pound thrusts with climbing towards the sky. The greater emphasis of the new glenn shows its design for larger payload and more demanding missions than the Falcon 9.
In the last days of 2024, the new Glenn rocket successfully completed an integrated launch vehicle hotfire test, a major milestone on the road for its first flight.
The Cape Canverals, Launch Complex 36 in Florida, will now be launched any day before, and will take the blue ring pathFinder payload of Blue Origin designed to test key technologies for the new rocket. It will also serve as a performance mission for the US Space Force's National Security Space Launch Program.
Just to be clear, the launch dates for Starships and New Glenn have not yet been officially declared, but both missions are expected to be in this month.
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