The space industry is bracing for another packed month after a busy February. On Feb. 26, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched multiple missions from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, including a lunar lander made by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, a NASA lunar orbiter and a robotic probe made by AstroForge, an asteroid mining startup. On Feb. 25, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launched its 10th space tourism mission, sending six passengers to suborbital space. And on Feb. 22, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starlink mission from California, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit past 8,000.
March will bring both celestial and human spaceflight events. A lunar eclipse on March 14 will turn the moon reddish orange in a “blood moon” visible across the Western Hemisphere. Two Mars gravity assists are expected, and NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally set to come home from an extended stay on the International Space Station.
Here are five space missions to watch in March 2025:
March 1: NASA’s Jupiter probe gets a gravity assist. NASA’s Europa Clipper will fly 550 miles above Mars, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed and adjust course toward its final destination, Jupiter’s moon Europa. The spacecraft, launched last October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, aims to study Europa’s potential to support life. It is expected to reach Jupiter’s orbit by 2030. Another gravity assist is planned for December 2026, when the Clipper flies past Earth.
March 2: NASA does double duty. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying two NASA projects: The SPHEREx space telescope will map the sky in infrared to study the universe’s formation. The PUNCH mission, consisting of four small satellites, will monitor the Sun’s corona as it transitions into solar wind.
March 3: SpaceX’s eighth Starship test. Originally set for February, SpaceX has moved its eighth Starship test flight to March 3. The last test in January ended in failure when the upper-stage capsule exploded mid-flight due to propellant leaks. This time, SpaceX will again attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster with its “chopstick” catch system, a maneuver it has successfully completed twice. The mission will also carry four dummy Starlink simulators to practice satellite deployment.
March 12: ESA’s Mars flyby. NASA’s Europa Clipper isn’t the only spacecraft flying by Mars this month—the European Space Agency’s Hera mission will also get a gravity assist when it passes by the planet on March 12. Launched last fall, Hera plans to spend the next year traveling to an asteroid that was impacted by a NASA mission in 2022 practicing asteroid deflection techniques, where it will gather information on the Didymos asteroid system.
March 12: NASA astronauts finally get a ride home. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will finally return to Earth after an eight-month stay on the ISS. They were launched to the space station by Boeing (BA)’s Starliner spacecraft last June. Originally set for a one-week stay, they remained due to Starliner issues that required an uncrewed return. On March 12, NASA’s Crew-10 mission will arrive at the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule for a handover. A few days later, the spacecraft will bring Williams and Wilmore home, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Aleksandr Gorbunov, who are scheduled to return to Earth on the same ride after a six-month stay in space.
