Preparing to orbit and do science on the Moon, investigating how solar wind interacts with Mars, and demonstrating quiet supersonic flight are just a FEW of the milestones we have planned for 2025.Much of this continues what NASA did in 2024, but that's a good thing. It's also what I'm least worried about with the incoming administration. As I wrote in 2016, "space policy is the one area where Trump might actually be good for the country." I also wrote "It's like hoping for the alternative history in The Man in the High Castle to happen just so there could be commercial SSTs by the early 1960s...The cost would be too high." I fear the cost might be higher this time.
Now for ESA 2025: A fifty-years legacy of building the future.
In 1975, 10 European countries came together with a vision to collaborate on key space activities: science and astronomy, launch capabilities and space applications: the European Space Agency, ESA, was born."In 2025, ESA looks ahead to a busy and exciting year." So do I. To paraphrase what I wrote last year and the year before, here's to 2025 being another great year in space.
In 2025, we mark half a century of joint European achievement – filled with firsts and breakthroughs in science, exploration and technology, and the space infrastructure and economy that power Europe today.
During the past five decades ESA has grown, developing ever bolder and bigger projects and adding more Member States, with Slovenia joining as the latest full Member State in January.
We’ll also celebrate the 50th anniversary of ESA’s Estrack network, 30 years of satellite navigation in Europe and 20 years since ESA launched the first demonstration satellite Giove-A which laid the foundation for the EU’s own satnav constellation Galileo. Other notable celebrations are the 20th anniversary of ESA’s Business Incubation Centres, or BICs, and the 30th year in space for SOHO, the joint ESA and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
