Later this year, New Horizons will reach Pluto, Messenger will crash into Mercury, and the Air Force's secret X-37B space plane will fly again. New science missions will study solar winds and magnetism, and a NASA probe may even find a liquid ocean in the asteroid belt. Check out this guide to the launches, fly-bys, and crashes that will make the news this year.

February 11: Intermediate Experimental Vehicle Test Flight

The European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned, reusable space plane, which it calls the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV), will launch from Kourou, French Guiana at 10 AM local time. It will lift off aboard a Vega rocket operated by Arianespace. The ESA hopes that IXV, which is about the size of a car, will eventually deliver supplies to the International Space Station and return experiments to Earth. February's test flight will be a one hour and 40 minute suborbital flight, but the ESA says that IXV will hit a top speed of just over 16,700 mph on its way back to Earth, fast enough to simulate a return from low orbit. IXV will splash down in the Pacific Ocean to be recovered by ship.

March 6: Dawn's Arrival at Ceres

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will arrive in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres on March 6. Ceres has a thick ice mantle, and scientists say that it could have an ocean of liquid water beneath its crust. With an average diameter of 590 miles, Ceres is also the largest object in the asteroid belt. The second largest, asteroid Vesta, had a 14 month visit from Dawn in 2011 and 2012, which makes Dawn the first spacecraft ever to orbit two destinations in the Solar System.

With an average diameter of 590 miles, Ceres is also the largest object in the asteroid belt.

March 12: Magnetic Multiscale Mission Launch

NASA's Magnetic Multiscale mission (MMS) will launch from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas V rocket on March 12. Four identical, octagonal spacecraft will orbit Earth's equator in a pyramid formation to study the effects of interactions between the Earth's magnetic field and the Sun's. Researchers say this data will help predict geomagnetic storms.

March 28: Scott Kelly's 1-Year Mission

Astronaut Scott Kelly will blast off for ISS with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko in a Soyuz capsule on March 28. The two will spend a full year on the station, twice the length of the average crew stay, helping study the physical and psychological effects of long-term spaceflight. Kornienko follows in the footsteps of four other cosmonauts who spent full years in space, and Kelly will be the first American to spend a year in space. Kelly's data will be compared to blood samples and possibly other physical and psychological tests from his twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who will spend the year on Earth.

March 31: Jason-3 Launch

The Jason-3 mission, a cooperative effort among NASA, NOAA, French Space agency CNES, and EUMETSAT, will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 31. The satellite will use a radar altimeter and other instruments to measure the height of the ocean surface, with accuracy within an inch. These measurements will help researchers understand ocean circulation patterns and monitor sea level changes.

April 30: Messenger Crash

The Messenger orbiter will finally run out of fuel and crash into Mercury around the end of April after nearly 4,000 orbits of the innermost planet. Engineers extended its life by about a month by using the spacecraft's fuel system pressurization gas for propulsion after its liquid propellant ran out. In its final weeks, Messenger will use its neutron spectrometer to study water ice in the shadows of the planet's northern craters. It will also measure Mercury's magnetic field from the closest range yet.

The Messenger orbiter will finally run out of fuel and crash into Mercury around the end of April

May 2015: X-37B Launch

Third-party sources report that the Air Force will launch its X-37B unmanned space plane from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in May, although the Air Force has not yet confirmed the date. This will be the fourth flight of the X-37B, also called the Orbital Test Vehicle. The Air Force has been highly secretive about details of the spacecraft's operations, but the 30th Space Wing says that it "performs risk reduction, experimentation, and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies." The last X-37B flight landed in October 2014 after 674 days in orbit, during which the Air Force says it conducted unspecified experiments.

July 14: New Horizons Fly-by of Pluto

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will make its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14. As it passes, it will study the composition of organic molecules and water ice on Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. New Horizons will also gather data on Pluto's atmosphere, which is escaping the dwarf planet in a way similar to how a comet's atmosphere escapes as the Sun heats it. Scientists hope this will shed some light on the early history of Earth's atmosphere. When it leaves Pluto behind, New Horizons will continue on into the Kuiper Belt, the icy objects beyond Neptune's orbit. New Horizons will be the first spacecraft ever to visit these icy outskirts of the Solar System.

August 5: Curiosity Rover 3rd Anniversary

NASA's Curiosity Rover celebrated its 1st year on Mars in 2013 by playing "Happy Birthday to You," the first song ever played on another planet. This year, it will celebrate its 3rd anniversary on Mars by gathering more samples, data, and images from the base of Mt. Sharp in the Gale Crater, its primary destination for the mission. Curiosity is now climbing the lower slopes of the mountain, which is about the size of Earth's Mt. Rainier.

August 11: Rosetta and Philae Perihelion

The ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, in orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, will escort the comet to its closest approach to the Sun, which astronomers call perihelion, around August 11. Rosetta will study how the comet's nucleus changes as it approaches the Sun and experiences intense heating. The ESA says it may be able to revive the hibernating Philae lander in early 2015 as it draws closer to the Sun, so Philae may be wide awake for perihelion.

September 2015: LISA Pathfinder Launch

LISA Pathfinder will launch aboard a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in September, although the ESA has not yet pinned down a specific date. The spacecraft will spend 6 months orbiting the first Lagrangian point. There, it will test technology built to detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time created when objects interact. Measuring gravitational waves could eventually help astronomers detect and study collisions between black holes. Aboard LISA Pathfinder, two small cubes of gold-platinum alloy, just a few centimeters apart, will model the gravitational waves produced by larger objects, like binary star systems, at greater distances. The tests must be done in space, because Earth's gravity would distort the waves.

November: Atatsuki's Attempt at Venus Orbit

Japanese spacecraft Atatsuki will make its second attempt at entering Venus orbit in November, though the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has not set an exact date for the attempt. Atatsuki's main engine was damaged during the first orbit attempt in 2010, and JAXA used its attitude control thrusters to place it on its current course early in 2011. Since then, it has been exposed to more intense heat than originally planned, and researchers are concerned that some instruments may have been damaged.

November: Astro-H X-Ray Observatory Launch

JAXA's Astro-H X-Ray Observatory will lift off from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan this November aboard an H-IIA rocket operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. From about 340 miles above the Earth, Astro-H will use its X-ray spectrometer to study distant galaxies, material in the gravitational fields of black holes, and supernova remnants. The spectrometer is a collaboration with NASA, and a heat switch failure on a mockup of the instrument in 2010 had pushed back the launch from 2014 to 2015.

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