From a mission to an asteroid to the launch of a new, more powerful rocket, this year could be another busy one on the Space Coast.
As of right now, about 20 unmanned launches are planned to take place in Brevard County in 2016.
SpaceX has a full slate of launches to deliver commercial satellites and International Space Station cargo to orbit.
The company will also attempt more landings of its reusable rockets.
The big highlight from the company will happen in the spring, though, when SpaceX debuts the Falcon Heavy rocket.
The Falcon Heavy is a more powerful launch vehicle that will blast off from Kennedy Space Center's historic Pad 39A.
The pad hasn't been used for a launch since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011.
The Falcon Heavy will be used in the future to send humans to places like the moon or Mars.
"It will be great all around," said Dale Ketcham, of Space Florida. "Another huge step forward here for the program, for human spaceflight and certainly for those of us here in Florida."
United Launch Alliance has 12 launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral in 2016, including several military and government satellites.
An important launch is set for the fall when an Atlas V rocket sends NASA's OSIRIS-REx to space. It will travel to an asteroid and pluck samples that could better explain the solar system's formation and how life began. It will return to Earth for study when the mission is completed. It will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from an asteroid back to Earth.
"The scientific objectives are to understand the material that was available for the formation of the earth, the origin of life — things like that at the very beginning of the solar system," said Dr. Joseph Nuth, NASA deputy project scientist for the OSIRIS-REx mission.
Work will continue inside the Kennedy Space Center in 2016 as crews prepare the spaceport for the return of human missions in the years ahead.
New platforms are being installed inside the Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for the Space Launch System rocket. An Orion spacecraft is also expected to arrive in February.
Orion will launch on the SLS rocket for the first time in 2018.
Boeing and SpaceX will continue testing their human spacecraft leading up to human launches to the International Space Station in 2017.
Blue Origin will begin building a rocket manufacturing facility near the space center, too.
And more activity on the Space Coast means more activity for area businesses and museums.
The Air Force Space and Missile History Center is excited for the potential activity in the year ahead.
"We're looking forward to the interest that it generates with the general public and get them in tuned with the American space program again," said Dennis Vanderheyden, a volunteer with the museum.
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It's still unclear what company will have the first launch from Florida in 2016, though.
ULA has set Feb. 3 for its first launch. A rocket would deliver a GPS satellite to orbit for the U.S. Air Force.
SpaceX would like to launch a communications satellite this month, but a specific date hasn't been set.