Calendar of space events 2026

This is your one-stop space exploration and astronomy calendar for 2026: from mission launches and space exploration milestones to celestial events and exciting changes in our Solar System, it’s all in this space events calendar.

Note: The timing of space missions is subject to change. The dates of astronomical events are not.

January

• Jan. 3: The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks. The brightness of an almost-full Moon will severely limit the number of meteors visible. This shower is limited almost entirely to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Jan. 10: Jupiter at opposition. Jupiter will be at its brightest and most visible of the entire year, so this will be the best time to see it.

February

• Feb. 17: Annular solar eclipse. The solar eclipse will mostly be viewable over parts of the southern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
• Feb. 28: Planetary alignment. Six planets — Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — will trace an arc across the night sky, though some (Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) will be much more easily visible than others (Uranus, Neptune). This is the date when the planets will appear most aligned, but the “parade” will be visible for some time before and after, as well.
• Sometime this month: Artemis II earliest possible launch date. NASA’s Artemis II mission will mark the first time humans have left low-Earth orbit since 1972. As part of the lead-uplead up to Artemis III, which intends to land humans on the Moon, Artemis II will send four astronauts around the Moon and back.

March

• March 3: Total lunar eclipse. The lunar eclipse will be visible in its entirety from the western portion of North America, as well as Oceania and Asia.
• March 8: Venus-Saturn conjunction. Venus and Saturn will appear within roughly 1 degree° of each other in the sky, about the width of a thumb held at arm’s length.
• March 20: March equinox.

April

• April 4: Mercury at greatest elongation. Mercury will appear farthest from the Sun in the sky than at any other time in the year, making this the best time to see the planet in 2026.
• April 8: SMILE earliest possible launch date. The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will launch to study the Sun and how it interacts with Earth.
• April 22: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks. The Moon will appear to be only slightly lit and will set before the shower’s peak visibility, so it should not interfere much with the display. This shower’s visibility is mostly limited to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere.

May

• May 2: Asteroid Vesta at opposition. Vesta will be at its brightest and most visible of the entire year. It will still be relatively dim and so only visible to most naked-eye stargazers under a very dark sky, but easier to spot with binoculars or a telescope.
• May 6: The Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks. The Moon will look mostly lit up and will brighten the night sky, which may make it harder to spot this shower.
• Sometime this month: Psyche makes a gravity assist maneuver at Mars. The NASA spacecraft will fly within 4,400 kilometers (2,700 miles) of Mars. After that, Psyche will be on course to reach the asteroid Psyche in 2029.

June

• June 9: Venus-Jupiter conjunction. Venus and Jupiter will appear within a little more than 1 degree of each other in the sky, about the width of a thumb held at arm’s length.
• June 21: June solstice.
• June 30: Asteroid Day. As the anniversary of the Tunguska Event, Asteroid Day is the United Nations-sanctioned day of public awareness around planetary defense and the risks that asteroids pose to Earth.

July

• July 25: Hayabusa2 flies by asteroid Torifune. JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft, now on its extended mission after having successfully brought samples of the asteroid Ryugu back to Earth, will fly by asteroid 98943 Torifune. Studying this near-Earth asteroid could help us understand how to mitigate the danger such objects pose to Earth.
• July 31: The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower peaks. The brightness of an almost-full Moon will severely limit the number of meteors visible.
• Sometime this month: Tianwen-2 arrives at asteroid Kamo’oalewa. The CNSA’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft, launched in 2025, aims to be the first to bring back samples from a quasi-moon of Earth. If successful, the mission will return the samples in 2027, then continue on to visit a comet.
• Sometime this month: Griffin Mission One earliest possible launch date. As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One will launch with the goal of landing a large rover and a smaller, cubesat-sized rover on the Moon.  

August

• Aug. 12: Total solar eclipse. The solar eclipse will be best viewed around Iceland, Greenland, and Spain, but will also be visible to a lesser extent from parts of Europe, northern Asia and Africa, and North America. Totality will last a maximum of 2 minutes and 18 seconds.
• Aug. 13: The Perseid meteor shower peaks. This shower will peak during a new Moon, making for excellent viewing. It is more visible to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, but the shower can also be spotted from parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
• Aug. 28: Partial lunar eclipse. The lunar eclipse will be visible from parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America.
• Sometime this month: Chang’e 7 earliest possible launch date. The CNSA’s Chang’e 7 mission will launch to the south pole of the Moon, deploying an orbiter, lander, a rover, and a hopping robot. The mission intends to study the lunar environment, scout for water ice, and build toward a future lunar base.

September

• Sept. 22: September equinox.
• Sept. 25: Neptune at opposition. Neptune will be at its brightest and most visible of the entire year. It will still be relatively dim and difficult to see, but with the right equipment (like a capable telescope), this will be the best time to try to see it.
• Sometime this month: Juice makes a gravity assist maneuver at Earth. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft will pass near Earth to set itself up for one more flyby in the future, also past Earth. These flybys will ultimately send the mission on its way to arrive at the Jupiter system in 2031.

October

• Oct. 4: Saturn at opposition. Saturn will be at its brightest and most visible of the entire year, so this will be the best time to see it.
• Oct. 4-10: World Space Week. The world’s largest annual space event, World Space Week is the United Nations’ official celebration of space and the use of technology to help humanity. This year’s theme is “Rocket Revolution.”
• Oct. 21: The Orionid meteor shower peaks. The Moon will look mostly lit up and will brighten the night sky, which may make it harder to spot this shower. It will be visible to viewers in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.
• Sometime this month: MMX launches to the moons of Mars. JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission will launch to explore the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, aiming to perform the first-ever landing on Phobos. One of MMX’s two sample collection devices is PlanetVac, a technology Planetary Society supporters helped enable by funding tests in 2013 and 2018.

November

• Nov. 9: Sagan Day. Our co-founder Carl Sagan’s birthday. A day to celebrate an amazing science communicator’s achievements, pay tribute to his legacy, and offer appreciation for the countless lives he touched.
• Nov. 17: The Leonid meteor shower peaks. The Moon will look partially lit up and will brighten the night sky, but will set before the shower’s peak visibility later in the night. The shower will be visible to viewers in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere.
• Nov. 25: Uranus at opposition. Uranus will be at its brightest and most visible of the entire year. It will still be relatively dim and so only visible to most naked-eye stargazers under a very dark sky, but easier to spot with binoculars or a telescope.
• Sometime this month: Hera arrives at Didymos-Dimorphos. The ESA spacecraft will perform the first rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, studying the aftermath of NASA’s DART impact and helping refine how we defend our planet from potentially dangerous near-Earth objects. Hera will release two cubesats and begin its science operations in earnest in 2027.
• Sometime this month: BepiColombo enters orbit around Mercury. The joint ESA/JAXA mission will enter orbit around Mercury, then separate into two different spacecraft: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio). The two spacecraft will study Mercury’s surface, interior, and magnetic field, learning more about the planet’s past.
• Sometime this month: Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, still active almost 50 years since its launch in 1977, will reach 25.9 billion kilometers (16.1 billion miles) away from Earth. At this distance, light will take a full day to travel between our planet and Voyager 1.

December

• Dec. 3: Europa Clipper makes a gravity assist maneuver at Earth. The NASA spacecraft will fly within 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) of Earth. After that, Europa Clipper will be on its final course to reach Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2030.
• Dec. 14: The Geminid meteor shower peaks. The Moon will appear to be only slightly lit and will set before the shower’s peak visibility, so it should not interfere much with the display. It is more visible to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, but the shower can also be spotted from much of the Southern Hemisphere.
• Dec. 21: December solstice
• Dec. 22: The Ursid meteor shower peaks. The brightness of an almost-full Moon will severely limit the number of meteors visible. This shower’s visibility is mostly limited to viewers in the Northern Hemisphere.

And more…

There are also many space missions that are slated to launch sometime in 2026, but which don’t have more exact launch dates released yet. You can possibly look forward to:

• NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launching to explore the Universe.
• China’s Xuntian, also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope, launching to co-orbit with the Tiangong Space Station.
• ESA’s Plato spacecraft (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) launching to find and characterize rocky exoplanets.
• NASA’s SunRISE mission, an array of six cubesats, launching to study solar activity.
• Boeing Starliner-1 performing its first uncrewed cargo flight to the International Space Station.
• Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Pathfinder mission launching off Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to land on the Moon.
• The Sierra Space Dream Chaser performing its first test mission to the ISS.
• Axiom Mission 5 launching to the International Space Station.
• Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 mission trying to land on the Moon. 
• Firefly Aerospace attempting to land Blue Ghost Mission 2 on the lunar far side, also deploying ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder relay satellite.
• The Haven-1 private space station launching off SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to Earth orbit.
• SpaceX’s Starship launching additional Integrated Flight Tests, and perhaps also performing an in-orbit propellant transfer demonstration.