2025 was a very busy year for space flight, both for better and for worse.
We saw many milestones on the last front this year, including for the first time a completely successful private moon landing And the official arrival of Blue Origin new glen Heavy lifters on space flight scene. But there were also many failures, some of them quite dramatic.
12. Indian rocket fails during satellite launch
On May 17, an Indian PSLV-XL rocket was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, carrying the EOS-09 Earth-observing radar satellite for the Indian Space Research Organisation.ISROBut EOS-09 could not reach its destination: PSLV-XL encountered a problem with its third stage about six minutes into flight, and the satellite was lost,
11. Firefly Aerospace faces a 1-2 punch
The Alpha rocket from Texas company Firefly Aerospace took off from California on April 29 on its sixth mission as a technology demonstration for Lockheed Martin. low earth orbitAlpha’s upper stage went up about 200 miles (320 kilometers), but it failed to reach orbital velocity due to a problem that occurred shortly after stage separation, and payload was lost,
Firefly diagnosed the problem and began preparations for Alpha’s return to flight. But the company suffered another blow on September 29: the Flight 7 first-stage booster the stand exploded During testing. The company chalked up the problem to a “process error” during integration and aims to launch Flight 7 (with a separate first stage) in early 2026.
10. Landspace’s ZUK-2 rocket fails
Zhuke-2 is a two-stage rocket operated by Chinese startup Landspace. failed on its sixth mission, Which was launched on August 14 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The company did not disclose the payload aboard the rocket. It was the second failure for the Zhuke-2, whose engines burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen, like SpaceX’s Raptor, which powers the company. starship Megarocket.
9. Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 also
Nearly three months later, another Chinese rocket burst into flames – a Ceres-1, built by Beijing-based Galactic Energy. Ceres-1 launched from Jiuquan on 9 November, carrying two commercial Earth-observing satellites And the third spacecraft was demonstrated by a Chinese university. According to media reports, the first three stages of the rocket performed well, but there was an anomaly in its fourth and final stage. ruined the mission,
Another Chinese rocket failure may also occur this year. A Kuaizhou 1A vehicle – manufactured by the company ExPace, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation – apparently exploded At a pad in Jiuquan before launch on March 1, although reports of its demise are unconfirmed.
8. Japan’s H3 rocket fails during launch of navigation satellite
Japan also faced failure, with only 10 days left in 2025. The country’s H3 rocket encountered a problem in its second stage. on 21st decemberDuring the launch of the Michibiki 5 navigation satellite. The rocket did not deliver Michibiki 5 into the proper orbit, and officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (jaxa) declared the satellite lost.
7. The first orbital launch from European soil crashes and burns
On March 30, German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Norway’s Andøya Spaceport. This was the first flight for Spectrum and the first orbital flight from European soil, but it did not last very long: the rocket suffered an anomaly 18 seconds into flight, crashed back to earth and explodedCreating a blazing orange fireball across a gorgeous winter landscape.
However, Isar is bouncing back: it is currently Preparing for its second ever launchWhich will also happen from Andoya.
6. Australia’s first domestic orbital rocket falls short
A similar story surfaced halfway around the world a few months later. On July 29, Australian company Gilmour Space launched its Eris rocket from Bowen Orbital Spaceport in coastal Queensland. It was the first ever orbital launch attempt for a home-grown Australian rocket, but Eris soon returned to Earth: it slid sideways off the pad and back on terra firma 14 seconds after liftoff.
5. South Korea’s first private orbital rocket
South Korean startup Innospace also made history this year, launching the country’s first private orbital rocket on December 22. However, that vehicle, Hanbit-Nano, suffered an anomaly about a minute into flight and crashed back to earth,
So it was a tough year in every way for Rocket Debut. But that’s not at all surprising: It’s always been rare for a new launcher to succeed on its first liftoff.
4. Returning boosters that didn’t stick the landing
There were four failed landing attempts during orbital launches this year – one each by the first stage booster of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket (on 15th january), SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (on March 3), Landspace’s ZUK-3 (on 3rd December) and the Chinese government’s Long March 12A (on 22 december,
It is not entirely fair to include any of them on this list, as all four rockets reached orbit as planned, and landing the booster was a secondary objective for each of them. Also, this was the first flight to New Glenn (which landing stuck on its second launch last November), Zhuke-3, and Long March 12A (both attempting China’s first orbital booster touchdown). The Falcon 9 loss was SpaceX’s only landing setback out of more than 160 attempts this year. Still, they were technically unsuccessful, and all were memorable.
3. Private American lander reaches the moon
On March 6, the robotic lander Athena, built by Houston company Intuitive Machines, successfully landed. Moon With a parcel of NASA science payloads. But Athena soon fell. Its prone position prevented some payloads from deploying properly, and the lander could not collect enough sunlight to recharge its batteries. intuitive machines athena declared Died after a day.
It was the second such result for Intuitive Machines in just over a year. The company made history with the landing of its Odysseus spacecraft on the Moon in February 2024. but odysseus also droppedIts mission was cut short, apparently after breaking a leg during its touchdown.
If all goes according to plan, intuitive machines will soon return to the Moon: Its third robotic mission for NASA is currently targeted for the first half of 2026.
2. Private Japanese lander crashes on the Moon
Tokyo-based company iSpace tried to land its Resilience lander on the Moon on June 5, but failed; Vehicle slammed hard into the gray soil In the Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”). This was the second such setback for iSpace, which also failed during a lunar landing attempt. April 2023,
However, both missions had many silver linings; The company’s lander successfully reached lunar orbit on both occasions, achieving several milestones but missing out during the final stages of descent. And iSpace plans to try again in 2027.
1. Starship’s test-flight fireworks
SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, is scheduled to launch five times in 2025 on suborbital test flights from the company’s Starbase site in South Texas. The first three did not go completely according to plan.
on january 16The starship’s first stage, a massive booster named Super Heavy, successfully returned to the starbase, where it was captured by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. But the upper part of the plane exploded less than 10 minutes after takeoff, sending debris falling onto the Turks and Caicos Islands. Similar results emerged March 6 test flightWhich was the second Starship launch of 2025 and the eighth overall.
flight 9The flight on May 27 was a step backwards for Starship, as both stages were lost prematurely (although the ship flew significantly longer than Flight 7 and Flight 8). A few weeks later, on June 18, the program suffered another blow: the ship that SpaceX was preparing for flight 10. An explosion occurred on a test stand on a starbase,
But SpaceX and Starship bounce back: The vehicle moves faster flight 10 And flight 11Which were launched on 26 August and 13 October respectively. The company is now preparing for the first test flight of Starship Version 3, a larger and more powerful version that will be able to reach Mars planet – the destination that SpaceX has long had in mind for the vehicle. A portion of that preparation was demonstrated buckling of super heavy During testing on November 21, but SpaceX, as always, is working.
