SpaceX rocket launch.” width=”970″ height=”660″ data-caption=’People take photos of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a payload of 22 Starlink satellites after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base on March 18, 2024. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Mario Tama/Getty Images</span>’>
After a packed April with Katy Perry’s venture into space aboard Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, the return of two stranded astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) and the launches of several missions from NASA, SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA), May will likely be an equally busy month for space missions.
SpaceX is set for a busy launch schedule in early May, with four back-to-back missions deploying Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, adding to the company’s megaconstellation of over 8,000 satellites. China is slated to launch a historic asteroid sample-return mission. A new ULA rocket may finally lift off for its first Space Force mission. And Houston-based Axiom Space is scheduled to send four astronauts to the ISS using a SpaceX rocket.
Here are six space missions to watch in May 2025:
May 1 to May 4: SpaceX launches four Starlink missions. On May 1, a Falcon 9 will lift off from Cape Canaveral for the Starlink 6-75 mission. The next day, another Falcon 9 will launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base for the Starlink 15-3 mission. Then, on May 4, SpaceX will stage a rare doubleheader from Florida: an early morning launch of Starlink 6-84 from Kennedy Space Center, followed by the Starlink 6-93 mission, which will add satellites to the sixth orbital shell, designed to reduce collision risk by separating satellites by altitude and inclination.
May 11: SpaceX launches NASA’s TRACERS mission. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry twin synchronized spacecraft to orbit as a part of NASA’s research on the impacts of solar activity on Earth. TRACERS will specifically study magnetic reconnection of Earth’s atmosphere caused by interaction with passing solar activity.
May 29: SpaceX and Axiom launch four astronauts to the ISS. The mission, called Ax-4, will be the fourth SpaceX lauches for Axiom Space, a Houston-based space company. A Falcon 9 rocket will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station to conduct scientific research. Crew members include: former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA astronaut Sławomir Uznański and Tibor Kapu. Shukla will be the first ever Indian astronaut to visit the ISS.
TBA: China to launch Tianwen-2 mission. China is gearing up to launch the country’s first asteroid sample-return mission. Launching from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the mission will target 2016 HO3, a near-Earth asteroid, to collect material which it will then deliver back to Earth. After, it will head back into deep space to study a comet.
TBA: ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to fly its first U.S. Space Force mission. The mission will be the first of over two dozen U.S. Space Force missions planned under a national security contract. The Vulcan Centaur rocket will replace ULA’s Atlas V, which has been flying since 2002. ULA was certified as one of the two certified providers of NSSL missions in late March.
TBA: Rocket Lab to launch DART AE mission. Rocket Lab is slated to launch a HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) rocket, which will carry DART AE, a 3D-printed hypersonic drone developed under the Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing program at the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
