These Are the Most Thrilling Space Science Occasions for 2026

Here’s What to Get Excited about in Space in 2026

By Lee Billings edited by Andrea Thompson

It’s an enormous universe on the market—13.8 billion years outdated, filled with tons of of billions of star-and-planet-packed galaxies and, out previous the bounds of our sight, maybe infinite in all instructions. But as huge and inscrutable because the cosmos could appear, we’re poised for 2026 to be a banner yr in bettering our understanding of the way it works and our place inside it whereas setting new milestones in spaceflight.

Return to the Moon

The most clearly thrilling house occasion for the approaching yr is the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission, which may happen as early as February. Taking 4 astronauts on a 10-day voyage across the moon, Artemis II will mark the primary human presence in our pure satellite tv for pc’s neighborhood for the reason that early Seventies and can set the stage for subsequent crewed forays to the lunar floor. Artemis II may even be a vital take a look at of {hardware} for later Artemis missions: will probably be the primary crewed flight of NASA’s big Space Launch System rocket and accompanying Orion spacecraft.

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Artemis II will likely be solely the start of an action-packed yr for lunar exploration. Other highlights embody Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2—set to ship NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) payloads to the moon in late 2026—and China’s Chang’e 7 mission, which is able to head to the lunar south pole within the second half of the yr.

Our Nearest Neighbors

Next yr also needs to see new voyages to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbors, Mars and Venus. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 on a visit to the Martian moon Phobos, the place it’s going to acquire samples for return to Earth. And Venus Life Finder, a personal collaboration between the aerospace agency Rocket Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will launch in the summertime to hunt indicators of biology in our sister planet’s clouds.

Close-ups for Asteroids and Comets

Meanwhile 2026 may see huge progress in research of asteroids and comets. China’s sample-return mission Tianwen-2 will attain and collect materials from the asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa in early summer season to midsummer, and close to yr’s finish, ESA’s Hera mission will arrive on the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos to check the aftermath of NASA’s earlier Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) affect mission.

The asteroid on most individuals’s thoughts subsequent yr could also be 2024 YR4, an area rock that for just a few weeks in 2025 appeared to pose an honest likelihood of hanging Earth in 2032; subsequent research of 2024 YR4’s orbit dominated out that chance, however uncertainty stays as as to if the asteroid may strike the moon to ship particles showering towards us. Fortunately, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may clear issues up with additional observations of the asteroid in spring 2026.

And within the coming yr, JWST and a bunch of different telescopes may even proceed their research of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar comet found passing by way of our photo voltaic system.

New Eyes on the Sky

Speaking of telescopes, a number of are beginning work in 2026 that might without end change our views of the cosmos. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could launch later within the yr and begin its mission to check large-scale cosmic constructions to assist make clear the still-mysterious nature of darkish matter and darkish vitality. China’s Xuntian house telescope could launch as effectively; certainly one of its major targets is to make comparable science observations. And the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, though formally starting operations in 2025, will ramp up its panoramic observations of the heavens in 2026 to find oodles of latest asteroids, comets, supernovae and different transient celestial phenomena.

The Rise of Reusable Rocketry

In phrases of sheer impact, nonetheless, the largest occasions for house science in 2026 aren’t actually acts of science in any respect. Rather, they’re flights of big new rockets providing novel and transformative launch capabilities. SpaceX’s flight assessments of its in-development Starship, a notionally totally reusable rocket that can be the world’s largest and strongest, are set to proceed all through 2026. And after profitable debuts in 2025, different partially reusable rockets—particularly, New Glenn from Blue Origin, in addition to Zhuque-3 from the Chinese industrial firm LandSpace—are slated for added flights in 2026, encroaching on SpaceX’s decade-long efficient monopoly on fast, reusable orbital launch companies.

This ongoing meteoric rise of reusability is already inflicting launch prices to plummet whereas launch charges skyrocket, permitting the creation of a extra lively, numerous and sturdy house economic system by which way more alternatives exist for science and exploration. Thanks to a packed docket of launches with these modern rockets, within the fullness of time 2026 could also be remembered because the yr when early space-age goals of nigh-ubiquitous and routine spaceflight truly grew to become actuality.

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