From NASA's mission to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa to Elon Musk's SpaceX catching its Starship rocket mid-air, there's no doubt 2024 saw some incredible space feats. 'In 2024, NASA made leap after giant leap to explore, discover, and inspire – all while bringing real, tangible, and substantial benefits to the American people and to all of humanity,' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. And 2025 is set to be an even more remarkable year for space agencies and companies around the world, who have an assortment of exciting missions lined up. Among them are NASA, which is sending two twin spacecraft to Mars – although its upcoming return to the moon has been delayed yet again. There's also the European Space Agency, which is set to launch its futuristic'Space Rider' spaceplane – described as a'robotic laboratory the size of two minivans'.

While companies show off their robots, autonomous cars and virtual reality headsets at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sierra Space is presenting innovations that are out of this world. The company is showcasing a life-size replica of its Dream Chaser spaceplane that will one day take people and cargo to low Earth-orbit. Along with the 30-foot craft, Sierra Space's Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat, a giant inflatable house for moon colonizers, is also on display - but as a scaled-down version. Sierra Space may be a newcomer to the space industry, but the company has secured a deal with NASA for unmanned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) starting this year. And it is working with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to develop a commercial off-Earth outpost called Orbital Reef.