2026 space calendar

Updated 2026-07-03

The dates that matter for the rest of 2026: mission milestones, eclipses and meteor showers, and the anniversaries worth marking. Every date here is verified against agency or observatory sources, and missions without a confirmed date sit in the watch list below until one is announced. For the week-by-week launch schedule, see the live launches page; for how we got here, the 69-year timeline.

July 2026

July 4
Anniversary
Juno marks 10 years at Jupiter
NASA's Juno probe entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. A decade later it is still flying an extended mission of the planet, its rings, and its moons, including close passes of Io and Europa.
July 20
Anniversary
Viking 1: 50 years since the first successful Mars landing
NASA's Viking 1 lander touched down on July 20, 1976, returned the first photos from the Martian surface, and ran the first life-detection experiments on another planet.
July 20
Anniversary
Apollo 11 turns 57
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed at Tranquility Base on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins orbited above. About 600 million people watched the first steps.

August 2026

August 12
Skywatching
Total solar eclipse over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain
The Moon's shadow crosses the Greenland ice cap, western Iceland, and northern Spain, with totality lasting up to 2 minutes 18 seconds. It is Iceland's first total solar eclipse since 1954; much of Europe and parts of North America see a partial eclipse.
August 12-13
Skywatching
Perseid meteor shower peaks under a new moon
The year's most-watched shower peaks with no moonlight at all: the new moon falls on August 12, the same day as the solar eclipse. Dark-sky observers can expect up to about 90 meteors per hour in the hours before dawn.
August 27-28
Skywatching
Deep partial lunar eclipse
Earth's shadow covers about 96 percent of the full Moon, close enough to total that most of the disk turns red. The Americas see the entire event; Europe and Africa catch it near moonset.

September 2026

September
Mission
JUICE swings past Earth
ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer returns to Earth for a gravity assist, its third planetary flyby, picking up speed for the final leg toward its 2031 arrival at Jupiter.

October 2026

October 4
Anniversary
Sputnik 1: 69 years of the Space Age
The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957, a 58 cm sphere whose radio beeps could be heard by amateurs worldwide.

November 2026

November 2
Anniversary
26 years of continuous human presence in orbit
Expedition 1 docked with the International Space Station on November 2, 2000. Someone has lived off Earth every day since.
November 21
Mission
BepiColombo enters orbit around Mercury
The joint ESA-JAXA mission fires its engines to be captured by Mercury, ending an eight-year cruise whose arrival slipped 11 months after a 2024 thruster fault. Its two orbiters will then separate to map the innermost planet.
November
Mission
ESCAPADE flies past Earth en route to Mars
NASA's twin ESCAPADE probes, built by Rocket Lab and launched on New Glenn in late 2025, swing past Earth for a gravity assist ahead of their September 2027 arrival at Mars.
November
Mission
Hera arrives at the DART impact site
ESA's Hera spacecraft reaches the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid pair, four years after NASA's DART deliberately struck the moonlet, to measure the crater and the orbit change up close.

December 2026

December 13-14
Skywatching
Geminid meteor shower peaks
The strongest annual shower peaks overnight with up to 120 meteors per hour under dark skies. A thin crescent moon sets by mid-evening, leaving the prime midnight-to-dawn window moonless.
December 14
Anniversary
54 years since humans last stood on the Moon
Apollo 17's Gene Cernan climbed back into the lunar module on December 14, 1972. The Artemis program plans to end the drought with a crewed south pole landing in 2028.

Dates to watch

Confirmed missions that do not have a firm date yet. They move up into the calendar as soon as one is announced.

Starship Flight 13No date announced
SpaceX static-fired all six of the ship's engines on July 2, 2026, but has not set a launch date for the second flight of the Version 3 vehicle.
Chang'e 7 to the lunar south polePlanned for the second half of 2026
China's orbiter-lander-rover-hopper stack will hunt for water ice near Shackleton Crater.
New Glenn return to flightCompany goal: before the end of 2026
Blue Origin is rebuilding Launch Complex 36 after a booster exploded during a May 28 static-fire test; outside analysts caution repairs could take longer.
Blue Moon MK1 lunar landing attemptAwaiting New Glenn's return to flight
Blue Origin's first robotic lander, bound for the area near Shackleton Crater, finished thermal vacuum testing in 2026 and launches on New Glenn.
Neutron's first flightNo earlier than Q4 2026
Rocket Lab's reusable medium-lift rocket slipped to late 2026 after a tank qualification failure in January.
Virgin Galactic Delta test flightsPlanned for Q3 2026
First flights of the new Delta-class spaceplane, with research missions to follow in Q4 and private passengers after that.
Starliner-1 cargo flightDate not set
Boeing's uncrewed cargo mission doubles as a validation flight; as of June 2026 NASA had not scheduled it.

Earlier in 2026

Frequently asked questions

When is the next total solar eclipse?

August 12, 2026. The path of totality crosses the Greenland ice cap, western Iceland, and northern Spain, with totality lasting up to 2 minutes 18 seconds. Much of Europe, northwestern Africa, and parts of North America see a partial eclipse the same day.

What is the best meteor shower of 2026?

The Perseids, peaking August 12-13. The peak coincides with a new moon, so skies stay fully dark and rates can reach about 90 meteors per hour. The Geminids on December 13-14 are even stronger, up to 120 per hour, with only a thin crescent moon that sets by mid-evening.

When will humans return to the Moon's surface?

Under NASA's plan as of mid-2026, Artemis IV in 2028 is the first crewed landing, at the lunar south pole. Artemis III in 2027 stays in Earth orbit to test dockings with commercial landers. See the Artemis guide for the full picture.

Will Starship fly again in 2026?

Preparations for Flight 13 are under way: SpaceX test-fired all six of the ship's engines on July 2, 2026, but had not announced a launch date. Check the launches page for the live schedule.

Live launch schedule Explore 69 years of spaceflight