Space Agenda for 2025: Scheduled Rocketeer Launches, Celestial Observances, Missions, and More!
Get ready for an exciting month of space exploration as August 2025 promises a busy calendar of launches, mission milestones, and skywatching events. Here's a roundup of what to expect.
Meteor Showers
The Perseid meteor shower will peak on the evening of August 12, offering stargazers a chance to witness up to 60 meteors per hour. The Ursid meteor shower, peaking on December 22, will be another spectacle, with the best time to watch being the evening of December 21 through dawn. The Geminids, unlike most meteor showers, are the product of an asteroid, not a comet, and will peak overnight on December 13 and 14. The Orionid meteor shower, active between September 26 to November 22, will peak on October 20-21, and the Leonid meteor shower will peak on November 17.
Launch Schedule
August 2025 is set to be a busy month for spaceflight, with multiple missions from various providers. Key scheduled launches include:
- August 1: SpaceX Crew-11 NASA mission from Kennedy Space Center at 11:43 a.m. EDT
- August 4: SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 10-30 mission launched from Cape Canaveral, deploying 28 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit
- August 7: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 launch for Project Kuiper (KF-02) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
- August 8: Chinese Jielong 3 rocket with unknown payload launching from Oriental Spaceport Launch Ship (Area 1)
- August 10: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 for Starlink Group 17-4 from Vandenberg SFB, California
- August 25: Chinese Long March 8 rocket launch from Wenchang Commercial LC-1 for the Y5 / G60 Polar Group 04 mission, plus Qianfan × 18 by SSST for communications
- August 29: Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 rocket from Jiuquan, plus other unknown or to-be-announced (TBA) low Earth orbit launches
- August 31: ExPace Kuaizhou 11 and AZSpace DIER-5 communications satellite launches from Jiuquan
Notable Missions
- Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky, and NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim are scheduled to return to Earth aboard their Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft in December 2025, wrapping up a six-month stint aboard the International Space Station.
- United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly its first of more than two dozen U.S. Space Force missions allocated under a national security launch contract on August 8, 2025.
- Northrup Grumman will launch the EWS OD-1 payload for the United States Space Force in Summer 2025.
- ULA will launch Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket in Summer 2025, marking the first-ever winged commercial spaceplane to the International Space Station.
- An Ariane 6 rocket from Arianeourbsite will launch European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) MetOp-SG A1 (MetOp Second Generation) satellite to a polar orbit on August 12, 2025.
- Blue Origin will launch its New Shepard rocket on the NS-34 mission on August 4, 2025, carrying a private crew of six passengers on a suborbital flight.
Industry Milestones
- NASA astronaut Chris Williams will launch on his first mission to the International Space Station in November 2025, serving as a flight engineer and Expedition 74 crew member.
- Artemis 2, the second scheduled flight of the Artemis program and the first crewed Artemis mission, is scheduled for February 2026. The mission will use a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for a lunar flyby mission.
Skywatching Forecast and Calendar
A visible planets guide and skywatching forecast are available for finding out what's up in the night sky this month. For the most comprehensive, up-to-date schedule, specialist tracking websites such as rocketlaunch.org and nextspaceflight.com provide real-time updates and filtering tools covering all planned launches worldwide. A calendar is also available for keeping up with the latest events in 2025.
End of Missions
- The ISS residents are expected to return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew-10 mission in early August 2025.
- NASA's Juno spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter 37 times in 2018 and extended its mission, is expected to end its mission and be deliberately crashed into Jupiter in September 2025.
Eclipses
A total lunar eclipse will occur on the evening of September 7, 2025, and will be visible from Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe. A partial solar eclipse will occur on the evening of September 21, 2025, and will be visible from New Zealand, Australia's eastern coast, parts of Antarctica, and some Pacific islands.
In summary, August 2025 is shaping up to be a busy month for spaceflight, with numerous launches, mission milestones, industry conventions, and skywatching events. Stay tuned for updates as launch dates are subject to change.
- Technology and science enthusiasts can look forward to numerous space-related news throughout August 2025, with a busy calendar of launches and mission milestones.
- The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak on the evening of August 12, delivering an opportunity to witness up to 60 meteors per hour.
- The month will also feature significant events in environmental science, as the Orionid meteor shower is set to peak on October 20-21, offering a chance to study their impact on atmosphere and weather patterns.
- Health-and-wellness advocates can keep a close eye on the food industry in August, with the expected launch of the first-ever winged commercial spaceplane to the International Space Station.
- In terms of history, the Artemis 2 mission, scheduled for February 2026, will mark a significant milestone as the first crewed Artemis mission and the second scheduled flight of the Artemis program.
- Environmental-science experts might want to keep track of the calendar for the AZSpace DIER-5 communications satellite launch in August 2025, as this technology could greatly assist in monitoring our planet's health and resources.
