These Are the Most Exciting Space Science Events for 2026

Here’s what to get excited about in space in 2026

By Lee Billings edited by Andrea Thompson

It is a vast universe, 13.8 billion years old, filled with hundreds of billions of galaxies filled with stars and planets and, beyond the limits of our sight, perhaps infinite in all directions. But as vast and impenetrable as the cosmos may seem, we are ready to make 2026 a banner year for improving our understanding of how it works and our place within it, while setting new milestones in spaceflight.

Return to the Moon

The most exciting space event of the coming year is the NASA satellite launch. Artemis II mission, which could take place as early as February. Take four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon, Artemis II will mark the first human presence near our natural satellite since the early 1970s and will set the stage for subsequent crewed forays to the lunar surface. Artemis II will also be a critical test of hardware for subsequent Artemis missions: it will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket and accompanying Orion spacecraft.

On supporting science journalism

If you enjoy this article, please consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscription. By purchasing a subscription, you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Artemis II will be just the start of a busy year for lunar exploration. Other highlights include Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 2 mission, which is expected to deliver NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) payloads to the Moon in late 2026, and China’s Chang’e 7 mission, which will head to the lunar south pole in the second half of the year.

Our closest neighbors

Next year is also expected to see new trips to Earth’s closest neighboring planets, Mars and Venus. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 for a trip to the Martian moon Phobos, where it will collect samples to return to Earth. And Venus Life Finder, a private collaboration between aerospace company Rocket Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will launch this summer to search for signs of biology in the clouds of our sister planet.

Close-ups of asteroids and comets

Meanwhile, 2026 could see big advances in asteroid and comet studies. China’s Tianwen-2 sample return mission will reach and collect material from asteroid 469219 Kamo’oalewa in early to mid-summer, and toward the end of the year, ESA’s Hera mission will arrive at binary asteroid 65803 Didymos to study the aftermath of NASA’s previous Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mission.

The asteroid most people are concerned about next year could be 2024 YR4, a space rock that for a few weeks in 2025 appeared to have a decent chance of hitting Earth in 2032; Subsequent studies of the orbit of 2024 YR4 have ruled out this possibility, but uncertainty remains over whether the asteroid could strike the moon and send debris towards us. Fortunately, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may clear things up with additional observations of the asteroid in spring 2026.

And over the coming year, JWST and many other telescopes will also continue their studies of 3I/ATLAS, the third discovered interstellar comet passing through our solar system.

New views of the sky

Speaking of telescopes, several will begin work in 2026 that could forever change our view of the cosmos. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could launch later this year and begin its mission to study large-scale cosmic structures to help clarify the still-mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy. China’s Xuntian space telescope could also be launched; one of its main goals is to make similar scientific observations. And the Vera C. Rubin Ground Observatory, although officially operational in 2025, will intensify its panoramic observations of the sky in 2026 to discover a host of new asteroids, comets, supernovae and other transient celestial phenomena.

The rise of reusable rockets

However, in terms of pure effects, the biggest events in space science in 2026 are not scientific acts at all. Rather, these are flights of new giant rockets offering new and transformative launch capabilities. SpaceX’s flight testing of its developing Starship, a theoretically fully reusable rocket that is also the world’s largest and most powerful, is expected to continue through 2026. And after a successful debut in 2025, other partially reusable rockets, namely Blue Origin’s New Glenn, as well as Chinese commercial company LandSpace’s Zhuque-3, are expected to make additional flights in 2026, encroaching on SpaceX’s effective monopoly on ten years. rapid and reusable orbital launch services.

This meteoric rise in reusability is already causing launch costs to plummet while launch rates are skyrocketing, enabling the creation of a more active, diverse and robust space economy in which many more opportunities for science and exploration exist. Thanks to a busy schedule of launches of these innovative rockets, 2026 may ultimately be remembered as the year when the first space age dreams of near-ubiquitous and routine spaceflight became reality.

It’s time to defend science

If you enjoyed this article, I would like to ask for your support. Scientific American has been defending science and industry for 180 years, and we are currently experiencing perhaps the most critical moment in these two centuries of history.

I was a Scientific American subscriber since the age of 12, and it helped shape the way I see the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of respect for our vast and magnificent universe. I hope this is the case for you too.

If you subscribe to Scientific Americanyou help ensure our coverage centers on meaningful research and discoveries; that we have the resources to account for decisions that threaten laboratories across the United States; and that we support budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In exchange, you receive essential information, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, newsletters not to be missed, unmissable videos, stimulating games and the best writings and reports from the scientific world. You can even offer a subscription to someone.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you will support us in this mission.