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.

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Technologies

This $20K Humanoid Robot Promises to Tidy Your Home. But There Are Strings Attached

The new Neo robot from 1X is designed to do chores. It’ll need help from you — and from folks behind the curtain.

It stands 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs about as much as a golden retriever and costs near the price of a brand-new budget car.

This is Neo, the humanoid robot. It’s billed as a personal assistant you can talk to and eventually rely on to take care of everyday tasks, such as loading the dishwasher and folding laundry.

Neo doesn’t work cheap. It’ll cost you $20,000. And even then, you’ll still have to train this new home bot, and possibly need a remote assist as well.

If that sounds enticing, preorders are now open (for a mere $200 down). You’ll be signing up as an early adopter for what Neo’s maker, a California-based company called 1X, is calling a «consumer-ready humanoid.» That’s opposed to other humanoids under development from the likes of Tesla and Figure, which are, for the moment at least, more focused on factory environments.

Neo is a whole order of magnitude different from robot vacuums like those from Roomba, Eufy and Ecovacs, and embodies a long-running sci-fi fantasy of robot maids and butlers doing chores and picking up after us. If this is the future, read on for more of what’s in store.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What the Neo robot can do around the house

The pitch from 1X is that Neo can do all manner of household chores: fold laundry, run a vacuum, tidy shelves, bring in the groceries. It can open doors, climb stairs and even act as a home entertainment system.

Neo appears to move smoothly, with a soft, almost human-like gait, thanks to 1X’s tendon-driven motor system that gives it gentle motion and impressive strength. The company says it can lift up to 154 pounds and carry 55 pounds, but it is quieter than a refrigerator. It’s covered in soft materials and neutral colors, making it look less intimidating than metallic prototypes from other companies.

The company says Neo has a 4-hour runtime. Its hands are IP68-rated, meaning they’re submersible in water. It can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G. For conversation, it has a built-in LLM, the same sort of AI technology that powers ChatGPT and Gemini.

The primary way to control the Neo robot will be by speaking to it, just as if it were a person in your home.

Still, Neo’s usefulness today depends heavily on how you define useful. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern got an up-close look at Neo at 1X’s headquarters and found that, at least for now, it’s largely teleoperated, meaning a human often operates it remotely using a virtual-reality headset and controllers.

«I didn’t see Neo do anything autonomously, although the company did share a video of Neo opening a door on its own,» Stern wrote last week.

1X CEO Bernt Børnich told her that Neo will do most things autonomously in 2026, though he also acknowledged that the quality «may lag at first.»

The company’s FAQ says that for any chore request Neo doesn’t know how to accomplish, «you can schedule a 1X Expert to guide it» to help the robot «learn while getting the job done.»

What you need to know about Neo and privacy

Part of what early adopters are signing up for is to let Neo learn from their environment so that future versions can operate more independently.

That learning process raises privacy and trust questions. The robot uses a mix of visual, audio and contextual intelligence — meaning it can see, hear and remember interactions with users throughout their homes.

«If you buy this product, it is because you’re OK with that social contract,» Børnich told the Journal. «It’s less about Neo instantly doing your chores and more about you helping Neo learn to do them safely and effectively.»

Neo’s reliance on human operation behind the scenes prompted a response from John Carmack, a computer industry luminary known for his work with VR systems and the lead programmer of classic video games including Doom and Quake.

«Companies selling the dream of autonomous household humanoid robots today would be better off embracing reality and selling ‘remote operated household help’,» he wrote in a post on the X social network (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

1X says it’s taking steps to protect your privacy: Neo listens only when it recognizes it’s being addressed, and its cameras will blur out humans. You can restrict Neo from entering or viewing specific areas of your home, and the robot will never be teleoperated without owner approval, the company says.

But inviting an AI-equipped humanoid to observe your home life isn’t a small step.

The first units will ship to customers in the US in 2026. There is a $499 monthly subscription alternative to the $20,000 full-purchase price, though that will be available at an unspecified later date. A broader international rollout is promised for 2027.

Neo’s got a long road ahead of it to live up to the expectations set by Rosie the Robot in The Jetsons way back when. But this is no Hanna-Barbera cartoon. What we’re seeing now is a much more tangible harbinger of change.

Technologies

I Wish Nintendo’s New Switch 2 Zelda Game Was an Actual Zelda Game

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment has great graphics, a great story and Zelda is actually in it. But the gameplay makes me wish for another true Zelda title instead.

I’ve never been a Hyrule Warriors fan. Keep that in mind when I say that Nintendo’s new Switch 2-exclusive Zelda-universe game has impressed me in several ways, but the gameplay isn’t one of them. Still, this Zelda spinoff has succeeded in showing off the Switch 2’s graphics power. Now can we have a true Switch 2 exclusive Zelda game next?

The upgraded graphics in Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild has made the Switch 2 a great way to play recent Zelda games, which had stretched the Switch’s capabilities to the limit before. And they’re both well worth revisiting, because they’re engrossing, enchanting, weird, epic wonders. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, another in the Koei-Tecmo developed spinoff series of Zelda-themed games, is a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom. It’s the story of Zelda traveling back in time to ancient Hyrule, and the origins of Ganondorf’s evil. I’m here for that, but a lot of hack and slash battles are in my way.

A handful of hours in, I can say that the production values are wonderful. The voices and characters and worlds feel authentically Zelda. I feel like I’m getting a new chapter in the story I’d already been following. The Switch 2’s graphics show off smooth animation, too, even when battles can span hundreds of enemies.

But the game’s central style, which is endless slashing fights through hordes of enemies, gets boring for me. That’s what Hyrule Warriors is about, but the game so far feels more repetitive than strategic. And I just keep button-mashing to get to the next story chapter. For anyone who’s played Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, expect more of the same, for the most part.

I do like that the big map includes parts in the depths and in the sky, mirroring the tri-level appeal of Tears of the Kingdom. But Age of Calamity isn’t a free-wandering game. Missions open up around the map, each one opening a contained map to battle through. Along the way, you unlock an impressive roster of Hyrule characters you can control.

As a Switch 2 exclusive to tempt Nintendo fans to make the console upgrade, it feels like a half success. I admire the production values, and I want to keep playing just to see where the story goes. But as a purchase, it’s a distant third to Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World.

Hyrule Warriors fans, you probably know what you’re probably in for, and will likely get this game regardless. Serious Zelda fans, you may enjoy it just for the story elements alone.

As for me? I think I’ll play some more, but I’m already sort of tuning the game out a bit. I want more exploration, more puzzles, more curiosity. This game’s not about that. But it does show me how good a true next-gen Zelda could be on the Switch 2, whenever Nintendo decides to make that happen.