To the moon, an asteroid and beyond: The biggest space missions ahead in 2025

From robotic expeditions to the moon to a new observatory in space to a rendezvous with an asteroid, 2025 promises to be packed with ambitious space exploration.

NASA and commercial space companies in the United States aren't the only ones that will be busy — this year’s slate of planned launches includes potential milestones for China, Japan and India.

Here are some of the biggest space missions ahead.

Moon fever continues

All eyes will be on the moon once again in 2025.

Later this month, a SpaceX rocket is set to launch two new missions to the lunar surface. One is a lander called Blue Ghost, which was developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace and aims to spend about two weeks collecting science data on the moon. The second is a privately built Japanese moon lander that houses an accompanying tiny rover.

Blue Ghost will attempt to touch down in a region of the moon known as Mare Crisium, which is thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The space agency awarded contracts to three private companies, including Firefly Aerospace, to deliver science experiments, technology and other cargo to the lunar surface. The initiative is a component of NASA's larger Artemis program, which aims to eventually return humans to the moon. The Blue Ghost mission is expected to carry 10 NASA science and technology experiments.

Riding the same rocket booster into orbit will be the Resilience lander and Tenacious “micro rover,” both developed by a Japanese company called ispace. They will take a longer, less energy-intensive path to the moon than Blue Ghost, aiming to land on the moon about four or five months after launch.

The targeted spot for touchdown is in the moon's far north, in a region called Mare Frigoris.

Last year, ispace’s attempt to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon ended in disappointment: Its Hakuto lander unexpectedly accelerated during its descent and crashed on the lunar surface.

A third moon launch could also come this month, from the company that succeeded in becoming the first to land a privately built craft on the moon.

Intuitive Machines, which is based in Texas, was also awarded a contract under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Last year, its lander became the first American vehicle to touch the lunar surface in more than 50 years. The company aims to send its next-generation lander to the lunar south pole on a separate SpaceX rocket in the coming weeks.

The mission will include a drill to extract lunar soil and a robot that will hop to a nearby crater to snap images and conduct science experiments.

Investigating the origins of the universe

In late February, NASA aims to launch its SPHEREx mission, a space observatory designed to map the entire sky in optical and near-infrared light.

The spacecraft will observe more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way and gather data on more than 450 million other galaxies.

The observatory will also hunt for telltale signs of life as we know it — including water and organic molecules — in the Milky Way as part of its planned two-year mission. Experts hope the expedition will yield insights into how galaxies formed and how the universe came to be.

Two NASA astronauts will finally return home

The pair of NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since their Boeing spacecraft ran into problems in June are expected to finally return home in March.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore launched to the ISS on the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner vehicle. The original plan called for the duo to spend about a week at the space station before returning to Earth in the Starliner. But the capsule encountered fuel leaks and thruster problems, so NASA opted to fly it back without anyone onboard, leaving Williams and Wilmore in orbit.

They will have spent more than nine months in space by the time they return to Earth in a SpaceX capsule, alongside two other space station crew members.

India’s spaceflight ambitions

India is looking to make big strides in its human spaceflight program this year.

Shubhanshu Shukla, an astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station on a commercial mission operated by the Texas-based startup Axiom Space.

The launch, which is expected no earlier than spring, will also include government-sponsored crew members from Poland and Hungary. The crew will spend up to 14 days at the ISS.

Meanwhile, India is also working to develop its own crewed spacecraft, which the country hopes to launch for the first time in 2026.

A new private space station?

A California-based startup called Vast is expected to launch a first-of-its-kind commercial space station into orbit this year. The private outpost, dubbed Haven-1, is slated to launch no earlier than August aboard a SpaceX rocket.

Haven-1 is designed to house four astronauts on missions up to 30 days. The space station will at first function as an independent outpost, though Vast eventually intends to connect it to a larger module that is still under development.

In partnership with SpaceX, Vast intends to one day launch a crewed mission to the Haven-1 outpost, but the company has yet to announce a targeted launch date for that.

China’s encounter with an asteroid

China's space exploration shows no signs of slowing in 2025.

This spring, the country plans to launch a mission to collect samples of an asteroid — its first such expedition.

The plan calls for a spacecraft called Tianwen-2 to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid named Kamo’oalewa, which some scientists have suggested could be a piece of the moon that got ejected during an ancient impact.

The mission aims to gather bits of the asteroid and then release a capsule with the samples to return to Earth in 2026. After that, the Tianwen-2 spacecraft is expected to swing around Earth and use our planet's gravity as a slingshot to send it flying towards a comet known as 311P/PANSTARRS. The probe is expected to arrive at the comet in the mid-2030s.

If successful, China’s asteroid sampling mission will be a major accomplishment for the country’s space agency — one that would come on the heels of several recent milestones. China has already become the first to collect and return samples from the far side of the moon, and it has also landed a rover on Mars and completed construction of its own Tiangong space station.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com