NASA Johnson Space Center marks key spaceflight and exploration milestones in 2025

In 2025, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston achieved multiple milestones across human spaceflight, research, and exploration missions.

Key accomplishments included preparations for the Artemis II mission, completion of Orion spacecraft stacking, and the unveiling of the Orion Mission Evaluation Room.

The Gateway lunar space station advanced with initial power-on testing, and lunar payloads were delivered by Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines.

NASA also selected a new astronaut candidate class, supported record-setting spacewalks, marked 25 years of continuous presence aboard the International Space Station, conducted dual Artemis III spacesuit testing, and contributed Mars hardware now displayed at the Smithsonian.

Artemis II Orion stacking and mission evaluation toom

NASA finished stacking the Artemis II Orion spacecraft with the launch abort system on top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at Kennedy Space Center on October 20, 2025. 

The flight is set for 2026 early and will include astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The groups tested the communication systems among Orion, the SLS rocket, and ground operations to get a confirmation on system interfaces.

At the Johnson Space Center, the Orion Mission Evaluation Room was declared open in the Mission Control Center.

The room is such that the engineers can keep their eyes on the Orion spacecraft systems in real-time and vehicle performance during the whole Artemis II can be evaluated.

The milestones were reached through the joint efforts of the staff members of the Orion Program, the Flight Operations Directorate, the Systems Engineering and Integration Office, the Crew and Thermal Systems Division, and the Human Health and Performance Directorate, who worked together with other NASA centers and industry partners.

Gateway Lunar Space Station and Lunar missions

The Gateway Program progressed toward constructing the lunar space station with the Power and Propulsion Element completing initial power-on testing at Lanteris Space Systems in California.

NASA also advanced lunar exploration through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 delivered ten science and technology instruments to the Moon on March 2, landing near Mons Latreille in Mare Crisium.

The IM-2 mission of Intuitive Machines touched down close to the lunar South Pole on March 6, thereby setting a new record for lunar landings in terms of proximity.

The Johnson Space Center groups facilitated these missions via the CLPS initiative, the Engineering Directorate, the Exploration Architecture, Integration, and Science Directorate, and the Flight Operations Directorate.

Space station operations and Astronaut activities

On the 2nd of November 2025, NASA celebrated the milestone of having humans continuously aboard the International Space Station for 25 years.

During its lifetime, the ISS has been home to more than 4,000 experiments carried out by over 5,000 researchers from 110 countries and has accommodated 290+ visitors from 26 nations.

The astronauts Suni Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers performed together and shared record-setting spacewalks during which they conducted maintenance and scientific work.

As for Williams, she surpassed all spacewalkers with her total of 62 hours and six minutes of cumulative under-the-stars-totals. In the year 2025, two expeditions, Crew-10 and Expedition 73, took place, which also included astronaut Jonny Kim's first spaceflight and the launch of Chris Williams aboard Soyuz MS-28.

Asteroid and Mars research

The Near-Earth Object Surveyor telescope went through thermal vacuum testing in Chamber A at Johnson Space Center and this telescope is meant to find hidden space rock and comet that can be a threat to Earth with the earliest launch date being 2027 planned.

The NASA's Perseverance rover SHERLOC calibration target, which was made at Johnson Space Center, has been the permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The tool keeps working on Mars to adjust devices for identifying chemical traces and possible signs of ancient microbial life.

Additional milestones

The first dual spacesuit test for Artemis III was completed at Johnson’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.

The Houston AutoBoative Show included NASA’s Artemis exhibit. OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid sample return team received the Agency Group Achievement Award, and Axiom Mission 4 conducted its first space station mission with participants from India, Poland, and Hungary.

Stay tuned for more updates.