Technologies

Here’s How to Watch Every Major US Space Launch for the Rest of 2025

Space launches have already made headlines this year. Here’s a look at upcoming launches you can watch from the comfort of home.

Space launches have been making headlines in 2025

agencies from around the world launched a total of 244 successful missions into orbit or space in 2024, which is the most in history. The US led the way with over half of those launches. Dozens of space launches are already planned for 2025.

Feel like watching a liftoff? Many of them will likely be streamed by NASA or from the YouTube channels of individual companies like SpaceX. Space launches are finicky, and the dates often change with little warning. But if you’re looking to keep an eye on the sky in 2025, the list below should help.

January

Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Mission 1 & Hakuto-R M2 Resilience

Launch date: Launched successfully on Jan. 15
Organization: SpaceX / NASA / Firefly Aerospace
Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, FL
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5

This uncrewed mission, which launched on Jan. 15, will carry Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander to the moon, along with a payload of 10 NASA instruments designed to measure various metrics on the lunar surface, including position and navigation data, regolith behavior and Earth’s magnetosphere.

New Glenn’s Inaugural Launch

Launch date: Launched successfully on Jan. 16
Organization: Blue Origin / NASA
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glenn
Launch site: Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL

Blue Origin’s first test flight of its New Glenn rocket was originally scheduled for Jan. 13. However, a vehicle subsystem issue sprung up that would’ve taken too long to troubleshoot on the launch pad, so Blue Origin rescheduled the launch, and it successfully reached orbit on Jan. 16. In addition to the inaugural launch, the payload included Blue Ring Pathfinder, which was set to demonstrate its ability to communicate from orbit to ground.

Read more: New Glenn Rocket Launch Marks a Big Moment for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin

February

Lunar Trailblazer & Nova-C IM-2

Launch date: Successfully launched on Feb. 27
Organization: SpaceX / NASA / Intuitive Machines
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Kennedy Space Center, FL

The Lunar Trailblazer and Nova-C IM-2 mission lifted off successfully on Feb. 27. While the Nova-C IM-2 part of the mission is still going okay, the Lunar Trailblazer lost communications with NASA and is currently lost in space. The mission’s success will depend entirely on if NASA can reestablish contact, which the agency is still trying to do.

This mission will take the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander to the moon for its second mission. The trip also includes NASA’s PRIME-1 payload, which will be drilling into the moon and using a mass spectrometer to analyze materials beneath the surface.

SPHEREx & PUNCH

Launch date: Launched successfully on March 11
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Vandenberg SFB, CA

SpaceX and NASA originally planned to launch the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions in the last week of February 2025, but were delayed until the second week of March.

SpaceX sent its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit with NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH. SPHEREx is a two-year mission that will launch a satellite capable of detecting near-infrared light and optical light to gather data. PUNCH is four suitcase-sized satellites that will monitor the Sun’s corona to detect coronal mass ejections to eventually be able to predict when they’ll happen.

March

Crew-10

Launch date: Successfully launched on March 14
Organization: SpaceX / NASA / ROSCOSMOS / JAXA
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

A crewed flight to the International Space Station successfully launched on March 14, bearing American astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian astronaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. Once they arrive at the ISS, Crew-9, along with Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, will make its way back to Earth. Williams and Wilmore made near-constant headlines since their June trip to the ISS stretched from the expected eight days to more than eight months, but when Crew-10 arrived, they were finally able to go home.

Read more: NASA Crew-10 Astronauts Launch to ISS on SpaceX Rocket

Fram2

Exact date: Successfully launched on March 31
Organization: SpaceX
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Fram2 mission is a crewed mission that took five passengers around Earth’s polar caps. Over the five-day mission, the crew conducted the first-ever human X-ray while in space, along with more research on how spaceflight affects the human body. They also studied STEVE, or Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, which is a ribbon of hot gases that light up the night sky similar to aurora borealis. The crew consisted of Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Eric Philips and Rabea Rogge.

April

Project Kuiper (Vulcan #1 and Vulcan #2)

Launch date: April 28, 2025
Organization: United Launch Alliance / Kuiper Systems (Amazon)
Rocket: Vulcan VC6L and Atlas V 551
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

Thefirst two Project Kuiper launches were scheduled for March 2025 butwere delayed until April. Kuiper Systems is a subsidiary of Amazon andplans to launch a total of 3,276 satellites into orbit for broadbandinternet access to compete with the likes of SpaceX. There will be anumber of these going up throughout 2025 and beyond. After some delays,the first launch should be April 28, 2025.

May

Axiom Space Mission 4

Exact date: May 29, 2025
Organization: SpaceX / Axiom Space
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

TheAxiom Space Mission 4 will send four people to the International SpaceStation where they’ll stay for a little over a week. The crew includesretired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Indian astronaut ShubhanshuShukla, Polish engineer Sławosz Uznański and Hungarian astronaut TiborKapu.

EWS OD-1

Exact date: May 31, 2025
Organization: Northrop Grumman Space Systems
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Launch site: Vandenberg SFB, CA

The EWS OD-1 mission will deploy the Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System into low Earth orbit as a tech demonstration, allowing various branches of the US military to evaluate its performance as a weather satellite for the Department of Defense. The launch is currently scheduled for May 31, 2025.

June

USSF-106

Exact date: June 30, 2025
Organization: United Launch Alliance
Rocket: Vulcan VC4S
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

This is a mission for the United States Space Force. It’ll deploy the NTS-3 navigation satellite along with NASA’s SunRISE mini-satellites, which will study solar activity. Other payloads are planned for this launch but haven’t been announced yet.

EscaPADE

Exact date: Q2 2025
Organization: Blue Origin / NASA
Rocket: New Glenn
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission is a joint venture between Blue Origin and NASA that will send science tools to Mars to study our red neighbor. The instruments will study the solar wind energy transfer through Mars’ magnetosphere. It’s one of Blue Origin’s biggest launches of the year. An exact date isn’t listed yet but June 2025 is set as the launch window

July

Crew-11

Exact date: July 2025
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The Crew-11 flight will take four more astronauts to the ISS in July 2025. For now, the exact launch date hasn’t been set in stone and neither has the crew. However, it’ll be just like the Crew-10 launch, where four astronauts will go to the ISS to conduct study and relieve the prior crew. An exact date hasn’t been scheduled yet, but NASA wants to launch it in July 2025.

August

Blue Moon Pathfinder

Launch date: August 2025
Organization: Blue Origin
Rocket: Blue Origin New Glenn
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

Blue Origin will finally begin testing on its Blue Moon Pathfinder MK1lunar lander. It isn’t going to the moon yet, but Blue Origin launchesalways get plenty of press before they go up. Eventually, Blue Originwants to use the Pathfinder to take supplies to the moon. Initially, launch was set for spring of 2025, but it appears August 2025 is the more likely launch window.

September

STP-S29A

Exact date: September 2025Organization: Northrop Grumman Space Systems / US Department of Defense
Rocket: Minotaur IV
Launch site: Vandenberg SFB, CA

STP-S29A is a fairly large mission from the US Department of Defense that’ll see Northrop Grumman launch several technology demonstrations into low Earth orbit. Included in the payload are 200 kilograms worth of CubeSats — very small satellites — for testing purposes. In addition, the STPSat-7 will also be deployed, which will track and catalog orbital debris.

September

IMAP

Exact date: September 2025
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral SFS, FL

The IMAP mission is a joint venture between SpaceX and NASA that’ll see the deployment of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, yet another instrument to measure how solar winds affect things in and around Earth. The probe houses 10 instruments that take various measurements. In addition, the mission will house a small lunar orbiter called Lunar Trailblazer, a solar sail called Solar Cruiser and a weather satellite to study ultraviolet emissions in the Earth’s exosphere.

October

TSIS-2

Exact date: October 2025
Organization: SpaceX / NASA
Rocket: Falcon 9 Block 5
Launch site: Cape Canaveral, FL

The Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor 2 is a probe from NASA that’ll measure the Sun’s energy input into Earth through solar irradiance measurements. This data will be added to the decades of other Sun-related data that NASA has to better understand just how much energy strikes Earth from the Sun. The TSIS-1 is aboard the ISS and measures similar criteria from there.

Technologies

Knight Takes Pawn. Chess Lessons Are Coming to Duolingo

The course is in beta now, but will be available to everyone in a few months.

«Hola, ajedrez,» means «Hello, chess» in Spanish. You’ve always been able to learn Spanish on Duolingo, and soon you’ll be able to learn and practice chess on the language learning app, too. Duolingo announced on Tuesday that beta testers can practice the centuries-old board game in Duolingo now, and others will be able to learn the game on the app in a few months.

Duolingo’s chess lessons aim to be beginner-friendly

I spoke with a Duolingo rep about the upcoming lessons. They said they wanted to continue expanding what people can learn through the app, and chess was an early contender.

«[Chess is] one of those things that … any age group can learn … but then also something that takes the 10,000-hour theory to really master,» Edwin Bodge, a senior product manager with Duolingo, said. «We thought it would fit with the Duolingo medium really well.»

When I asked why people would use Duolingo over other chess learning sites and tools, Bodge said a lot of other chess content is geared toward advanced users, not newcomers.

«We really saw a great opportunity to try and cater to more of a beginner, medium [player] and try and increase access to the game,» he said.

The chess lessons are slightly different from others you might find on Duolingo, like Spanish and math, but the progression system is similar. And from what Duolingo showed me, the lessons really do start at square one — or at a1 on a chessboard.

Chess lessons should feel similar to other Duolingo lessons

When you start, Duolingo asks how much you already know about chess — like in other lessons on the app. Duolingo will then adjust the lessons according to your response.

If you say you’re brand-new to chess and have no knowledge of the game, early lessons will focus on how each piece moves before moving on to capturing other pieces and checking the king. Other lessons are similar to mini-puzzles where you might be asked to capture different pieces using a single piece, like your knight or rook, in four moves or fewer.

You can access hints for each lesson, but if you get something wrong, your opponent will react to show you you’ve left a piece open for capture, like in a real match. And if you keep getting something incorrect, Duolingo will show you what to do.

«If you get it wrong multiple times, eventually we’ll show you an arrow that shows you exactly where to move,» Sammi Siegel, a software engineer with Duolingo, said.

If you are subscribed to Duolingo Max and make a mistake in a language lesson, the app can explain the mistake — and what the right solution is — with a feature called Explain My Answer. However, that feature won’t be available with the chess lessons for now. It’s not always easy to explain why something is right or wrong in chess because there are so many millions of different moves.

«We want to get better at fuller explanations,» Siegel said. «There is some mix of AI and model training that we’re hoping to use to better explain why a certain move is wrong.»

Because there are so many moves in chess, it’s possible to make moves that could be correct but aren’t the best options. In such instances, Duolingo will show a banner that lets you know that a move isn’t wrong but isn’t necessarily the best move.

Duolingo also said each section represents a range on the Elo rating system — the method by which a chess player’s skills are calculated. As you progress, your lessons will be tougher and more challenging. This is similar to the CEFR language proficiency levels attached to the different language sections in the app.

You’ll also have the opportunity to have «mini-matches» or full-on games against Duolingo’s chess coach, Oscar. These matches will scale in difficulty to challenge you as well, so you aren’t facing a grandmaster-level chess player after your first week of playing the game. But that doesn’t mean you can slack off and play sloppily. If you make a mistake, like leaving your queen open to capture, Oscar will take advantage and leave you scrambling to recover.

While playing against Oscar is good practice, you won’t be able to face off against other players when these chess lessons launch. But Duolingo said matches against other people are something they are looking into, so you might be able to play against a friend over the app in the future.

«One of the big reasons why we’re doing this is we think we can get a whole generation of people interested in chess,» Bodge said.

Duolingo’s chess lessons are in beta now and will begin rolling out on iOS in English around mid-May. Duolingo said it is working to bring these lessons to Android devices and more languages in the coming months.

For more on Duolingo, here’s how well the free version prepared me for a trip to Italy and our review of the language learning app. You can also check out our best language learning apps.

Technologies

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 22, #415

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 415 for April 22. They might make you hungry.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle threw me off at first, when I realized it wasn’t just beverage options. But the connection is pretty easy to see once you get going. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Counter offers

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Take a break.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

SHAD, HADS, CAME, HEAP, FESS, PRESS, ROSE, ROSES, DAME, MADE, PATS, PAST.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

CHAI, SOUP, SANDWICHES, ESPRESSO, JUICES, PASTRIES

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is CAFEMENU. To find it, start with the C that’s four letters down on the far left, and wind across.

Toughest Strands puzzles

Here are some of the Strands topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.

#1: Dated slang, Jan. 21. Maybe you didn’t even use this lingo when it was cool. Toughest word: PHAT.

#2: Thar she blows! Jan.15. I guess marine biologists might ace this one. Toughest word: BALEEN or RIGHT.

#3: Off the hook, Jan. 9. Similar to the Jan. 15 puzzle in that it helps to know a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. Toughest word: BIGEYE or SKIPJACK