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Payload • Payload Staff

Top 5 Launches of 2025 — The Year of the Super‑Heavy Launcher

A roundup of the five most significant launches of 2025 shows the year was dominated by the emergence and flight tests of super‑heavy launchers, marking a turning point in heavy‑lift capability and operational focus across commercial and national space programs.

2025-12-26T05:37:58.462054-08:00

Space.com

The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025

2025-12-26T03:03:45.020959-08:00

Space.com

China’s 2025 space push: record launches, reusable‑rocket tests, lunar hardware trials and a crewed‑flight rescue

2025-12-24T09:10:37.842674-08:00

Space.com

Artemis II: First Crewed Lunar Flyby Since Apollo Targeted No Earlier Than Feb 2026

2025-12-24T07:07:43.666333-08:00

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Payload

Top 5 Launches of 2025 — The Year of the Super‑Heavy Launcher A roundup of the five most significant launches of 2025 shows the year was dominated by the emergence and flight tests of super‑heavy launchers, marking a turning point in heavy‑lift capability and operational focus across commercial and national space programs.

2025-12-26T05:37:58.462054-08:00

Top 5 Launches of 2025 — The Year of the Super‑Heavy Launcher

Space.com

The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025 2025 delivered a string of landmark exoplanet findings — new planets, detailed atmospheric hints and renewed observations of known systems — that highlight rapid advances in detection and characterization. Yet these results also underline major uncertainties about atmospheres, habitability and prioritizing follow-up observations.

2025-12-26T03:03:45.020959-08:00

The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025

SpaceQ

MDA Space demos autonomous lunar logistics at CSA analog site for Lunar Utility Rover MDA Space conducted an autonomous lunar logistics demonstration at the Canadian Space Agency's lunar analog site to exercise its Lunar Utility Rover concept, validating logistics tasks and autonomous surface operations in a terrestrial test environment. The demo advances Canada's surface-mobility and logistics capabilities for sustained lunar missions.

2025-12-24T13:28:00.912035-08:00

MDA Space demos autonomous lunar logistics at CSA analog site for Lunar Utility Rover

Space.com

NASA flies space‑grade sensors at 60,000 ft to map minerals needed for EVs and clean energy NASA flew space‑grade sensors aboard a high‑altitude aircraft at 60,000 ft to map Earth mineral deposits critical for electric vehicles and clean‑energy technologies. The instruments, similar to those used on spacecraft to study distant worlds, aim to demonstrate airborne mineral‑mapping capabilities.

2025-12-24T11:10:25.313125-08:00

NASA flies space‑grade sensors at 60,000 ft to map minerals needed for EVs and clean energy

Space.com

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China’s 2025 space push: record launches, reusable‑rocket tests, lunar hardware trials and a crewed‑flight rescue China’s 2025 space campaign combined a record launch cadence with reusable‑rocket flight tests and critical lunar hardware trials — and overcame a human‑spaceflight emergency with a successful crewed‑flight rescue. The sequence advances Beijing’s crewed‑lunar ambitions and validates higher‑frequency launch operations.

2025-12-24T09:10:37.842674-08:00

China’s 2025 space push: record launches, reusable‑rocket tests, lunar hardware trials and a crewed‑flight rescue

Space.com

Artemis II: First Crewed Lunar Flyby Since Apollo Targeted No Earlier Than Feb 2026 NASA's Artemis II — the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo — is now targeted to launch no earlier than February 2026. The four-person crew will undertake a roughly 10-day lunar flyby aboard Orion to validate crew operations, imaging systems and an early docking practice.

2025-12-24T07:07:43.666333-08:00

Artemis II: First Crewed Lunar Flyby Since Apollo Targeted No Earlier Than Feb 2026

Payload

Top Civil‑Space Stories of 2025: Budget Cuts, Staff Reductions and Leadership Turmoil 2025 was a chaotic year for civil space, driven by major budget cuts, workforce reductions and leadership turnover across agencies, forcing program delays, reshaped priorities and strained international partnerships. This roundup highlights five defining civil‑space developments that altered exploration and science timelines and risk profiles.

2025-12-24T05:40:51.822823-08:00

Top Civil‑Space Stories of 2025: Budget Cuts, Staff Reductions and Leadership Turmoil

Space.com

Russia patents rotating space station to generate artificial gravity Russia has patented a space-station concept in which habitable modules rotate around a central axis to generate artificial gravity via centrifugal force. The design relies on outward-pushing acceleration from the rotating modules to simulate gravity for crew during long-duration missions.

2025-12-23T14:07:19.657739-08:00

Russia patents rotating space station to generate artificial gravity

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Space Exploration & Science Missions News

Top 5 Launches of 2025 — The Year of the Super‑Heavy Launcher

The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025

China’s 2025 space push: record launches, reusable‑rocket tests, lunar hardware trials and a crewed‑flight rescue

Artemis II: First Crewed Lunar Flyby Since Apollo Targeted No Earlier Than Feb 2026

News Timeline