Events for December 25, 2025

ESA spacecraft surpasses 22 full years / starts 23rd year in Mars orbit today; will continue to study Mars atmosphere & climate, planet structure, mineralogy, geology, and to search for traces of water; launched June 2, 2003 and arrived at Mars in Dec 2003.

Surpassing 4 full years / beginning 5th in space, NASA (STSci) / ESA / CSA infrared astronomy telescope designed to observe the earliest galaxies, study star and planet formation, and analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets, launched on this day via Ariane 5 ECA rocket in 2021.