The most daring space missions coming in 2025 – from China’s asteroid retrieval to first private ‘luxury’ space station
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THIS year looks set to be another blockbuster year for daring space missions, from China's asteroid retrieval to the first-ever private space station. Here are some of the biggest space missions ahead. China is set to launch the Tianwen-2 mission to sample near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3) in 2025.
![[China is set to launch the Tianwen-2 mission to sample near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3) in 2025]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/artwork-asteroid-planet-earth-961300219.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The Tianwen-2 mission will see a spacecraft anchor down on the asteroid, which scientists believe could be a fragment of the Moon, to collect samples. After delivering samples to Earth, the spacecraft will use our planet for a gravitational slingshot maneuver and set it on a course for main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS.
![[Haven-1, from private space company Vast, feels more like a luxury hotel than a space station with its sleek wood veneer slats, soft and padded white walls]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/inside-worlds-first-private-space-940049625.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The sample phase is expected to last around 2.5years, with the spacecraft expected to arrive at 311P/PANSTARRS in the mid-2030s. Following on from the Odysseus Moon landing in 2024, Nasa's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) will continue delivering commercial lunar landers.
![[The Odysseus Moon lander was the first privately funded landing on the moon]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-s-communicating-lander-odysseus-881684133.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The CLPS scheme is what brought Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander to the Moon in February 2024 - marking the first US Moon landing since 1972. NASA has several CLPS missions planned for 2025: including deliveries by companies Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace.
![[Full layout of the station]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/inside-worlds-first-private-space-940049624.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Each mission will have a different end-goal, carrying out different experiments at various locations on the lunar surface. The payloads will include experiments to study lunar geology, test new technologies for future human missions and gather data on the Moon’s environment.
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