$626B space economy, 329 orbital launch attempts (record), Starship payload deployment, and Artemis II preparation.
2025 cemented the launch-cadence revolution with 329 orbital launch attempts (321 successful — a new annual record). SpaceX flew ~170 missions across Falcon 9 / Falcon Heavy / Starship test campaign, China hit 92, Rocket Lab logged 21 Electron flights from Mahia, and Arianespace flew 7 (4 Ariane 6 + 3 Vega-C). Blue Origin's New Glenn NG-1 (Jan) and NG-2 (Nov, first booster landing on Jacklyn) reset commercial heavy-lift expectations. Novaspace pegs the 2025 global space economy at $626B, up from $613B in 2024 (Space Foundation), with commercial revenue contributing 78%.
Published April 27, 2026 by SpaceOdysseyHub Editorial.
In 2025, the world conducted 329 successful orbital launches. SpaceX led the manifest with 170 launches, representing roughly 52% of the global cadence.
| Mission | Date | Agency / operator | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starship Flight 7 — payload deployment | 2025-01-16 | SpaceX | First Starlink-class simulator deploy from Starship; upper stage lost on re-entry |
| Starship Flight 8/9 series | 2025-Q1–Q3 | SpaceX | Iterative testing — V2 ship debut, in-space relight, second Mechazilla catch |
| Blue Origin New Glenn NG-2 | 2025-Q1 | Blue Origin / NASA | Success — first operational payload (NASA ESCAPADE Mars), booster recovered on Jacklyn |
| Crew-10 / Crew-11 ISS rotations | 2025 | NASA / SpaceX | Success — including SpaceX recovery of CFT-stranded crew Wilmore & Williams Feb 2025 |
| Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 | 2025-03-02 | Firefly Aerospace | Success — soft lunar landing in Mare Crisium with 10 NASA CLPS payloads |
| Intuitive Machines IM-2 'Athena' | 2025-03-06 | Intuitive Machines | Lunar landing south pole — tipped on side, ended early; PRIME-1 ice drill partial |
| Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return launch | 2025-05 | CNSA | Success — en route to near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa |
| ESA Hera arrival at Didymos system | 2025-Q4 | ESA | Pending — DART impact follow-up survey |
| Rank | Country | Civil + military space budget |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | United States | $81.0B |
| #2 | China | $21.0B |
| #3 | Japan | $6.1B |
| #4 | France | $4.6B |
| #5 | India | $2.1B |
| Company | Ticker | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Karman Holdings | KRMN | 2025-02-13 |
| Voyager Technologies | VOYG | 2025-06-11 |
| Firefly Aerospace | FLY | 2025-08-07 |
Going into 2026, the industry expects Artemis II crewed flight around the Moon, the first Starship payload-to-orbit insertions, accelerating Chinese megaconstellation deployment, and the maturation of direct-to-device satellite broadband as a mass-market service. The defense build-out — Golden Dome, pLEO Tranche 3, allied resilience constellations — is the single largest growth vector.