Here’s what to be excited about in space in 2026
From crewed lunar missions to flight testing of fully reusable rockets and the launch of new orbital telescopes studying the outer limits of the universe, 2026 should be a banner year for space science and exploration
NASA’s Artemis II The Space Launch System rocket seen during a test on December 20, 2025.
It’s a big universe – 13.8 billion years old, filled with hundreds of billions of stars and galaxies full of planets and, beyond the range of our vision, probably infinite in all directions. But as vast and enigmatic as the universe may seem, we’re set for 2026 to be a banner year for improving our understanding of how it works and our place within it, while setting new milestones in space flight.
return to the moon
The most obviously exciting space event for the coming year is NASA’s launch Artemis II The mission, which could take place as early as February. Taking four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon, Artemis II This will mark the first human presence in the vicinity of our natural satellite since the early 1970s and will set the stage for subsequent crewed efforts on the lunar surface. Artemis II It will also be an important test of hardware for subsequent Artemis missions: It will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s giant Space Launch System rocket and its accompanying Orion spacecraft.
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An artist’s rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander and the UAE’s Rashid 2 rover on the Moon.
Artemis II This will be the beginning of an action-packed year for lunar exploration. Other highlights include Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 – which is set to deliver NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) payloads to the Moon in late 2026 – and China’s Chang’e 7 mission, which will visit the Moon’s south pole in the second half of the year.
our nearest neighbors
Next year should also see new visits to Earth’s nearest neighbors, Mars and Venus. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 on a journey to the Martian moon Phobos, where it will collect samples for return to Earth. And Venus Life Finder, a private collaboration between aerospace firm Rocket Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will launch in the summer to look for signs of biology in our companion planet’s clouds.
An artist’s rendering of the Japanese Martian Moon Exploration (MMX) mission.
Close-up to asteroids and comets
Meanwhile, major progress may be seen in the study of asteroids and comets in 2026. China’s sample-return mission Tianwen-2 will reach asteroid 469219 Kamoolewa in early to mid-summer and collect materials, and near the end of the year, ESA’s Hera mission will reach binary asteroid 65803 Didymos to study the outcome of NASA’s first Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) impact mission.
On most people’s minds next year may be asteroid 2024 YR4, a space rock that appears to stand a good chance of hitting Earth in 2032 for a few weeks in 2025; Subsequent studies of 2024 YR4’s orbit ruled out that possibility, but uncertainty remains whether the asteroid could collide with the Moon and shower debris toward us. Luckily, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could clarify things additional observations Asteroid in spring 2026.
A panoramic image of the far side of the Moon taken by China’s Chang’e-6 mission in 2024.
CNSA/Handout from Xinhua via Alamy
And in the coming year, JWST and several other telescopes will also continue their study of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar comet discovered to pass through our solar system.
new eyes on the sky
Speaking of telescopes, there are several telescopes launching in 2026 that could change our view of the universe forever. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could launch at the end of the year and begin its mission to study large-scale cosmic structures to help elucidate the still-mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy. China’s Xuntian space telescope may also launch; One of its primary goals is to make uniform scientific observations. And the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, although officially beginning operations in 2025, will step up its panoramic observations of the sky in 2026 to search for new asteroids, comets, supernovae and other transient astronomical phenomena.
Element assembly wheel of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The rise of the reusable rocket
However, in terms of sheer impact, the biggest events for space science in 2026 are not actually acts of science. Rather, they are flights of huge new rockets offering innovative and transformative launch capabilities. Flight tests of SpaceX’s in-development Starship, a hypothetical fully reusable rocket that is also the world’s largest and most powerful, will continue throughout 2026. And after a successful launch in 2025, other partially reusable rockets – namely, New Glenn from Blue Origin, as well as Zhuke-3 from the Chinese commercial company Landspace – are scheduled for additional flights in 2026, which SpaceX anticipates. Decade-long effective monopoly on rapid, reusable orbital launch services.
An artist’s rendering of SpaceX’s Starship system conducting on-orbit refueling.
This ongoing meteoric rise in reusability is already causing launch costs to decline while launch rates skyrocket, creating a more active, diverse and robust space economy with far greater opportunities for science and exploration. Thanks to a loaded series of launches with these innovative rockets, in the fullness of time 2026 may be remembered as the year when the early space-age dreams of near-ubiquitous and routine space flight actually became reality.
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