Week-by-week look at missions, conferences, and milestones shaping the space calendar.
Dec 19, 1:45 p.m. EST (1845 GMT) — Innospace, Alcântara Space Center, Brazil
South Korean company Innospace will launch a HANBIT-Nano rocket on its maiden flight. The mission will carry five small satellites from the Brazilian space agency.
Dec 20, 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) — Blue Origin, Launch Site-1, West Texas
Blue Origin will launch its New Shepard rocket on the NS-37 mission carrying a crew of six on a suborbital flight. This will be New Shepard's ninth launch of 2025, and 16th crewed flight.
Dec 20, 7:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) — CASC, Pad 101, WSLC, China
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch an unknown payload on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.
Dec 21, 1:12 a.m. ET (0612 GMT) — Rocket Lab, Pad B, Launch Complex 1, New Zealand
Rocket Lab will launch an Electron rocket carrying a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite for iQPS. The spacecraft will join iQPS' growing constellation to deliver frequent high-resolution Earth-imaging.
Dec 21, 8 p.m. ET (0000 GMT Dec. 22) — Northern and Southern Hemisphere
The Ursid meteor shower is active between Dec. 13 to Dec. 26 and will peak on Dec. 22. The best time to look out for Ursids is the evening of Dec. 21 through dawn.
Dec 23, 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) — Roscosmos, Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia
Roscosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1a rocket with the Obzor-R No.1 satellite, an X-band radar earth observation probe.
Dec 23, 10:24 p.m. EST (0324 GMT, Dec. 24) — ISRO, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch a SpaceMobile BlueBird Block 2 communications satellite aboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket.
Dec 25, 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) — CASC, LC-1, WSLC, China
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch an unknown payload on a Long March 8A rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.
Dec 26, 11:00 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) — CASC, Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is expected to launch the Fengyun-4C meteorological satellite on a Long March 3B/E rocket to geostationary transfer orbit.
Dec 27, 9:09 p.m. EST (0209 GMT, Dec. 28) — SpaceX, SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG-3) mission for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence to low Earth orbit.
Dec 28, 12:00 a.m. EST (0500 GMT) — SpaceX, SLC-40, CCSFB, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a batch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. SpaceX's megaconstellation provides low-cost internet globally.