Upcoming December 2026 Space Events

The Geminids meteor shower peaks, known for bright meteors that can appear green.

A Christmas Eve full Moon occurs near its closest point to Earth, making it appear larger and brighter than average.

2nd lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace. The Blue Ghost lander will be of a new two-stage version utilizing an Elytra Dark transfer vehicle to place it and the European Space Agency's Lunar Pathfinder experimental communication satellite into Lunar orbit. The lander will land on the far side of the Moon with 2 NASA payloads: * Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night) * User Terminal (UT)

This is the 25th flight of the Orbital ATK's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 24th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Demonstration flight of the Astrobotic Griffin lander and its engines, initially contracted for the cancelled NASA VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission. The vacated payload spot will now host the FLIP (FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform) lunar rover from Astrolab.

First uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

Starliner-1 is the first operational flight of a Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Due to problems with the Starliner spacecraft's RCS attitude control system during the Crew Flight Test mission in 2024, this mission has been re-scoped to not carry a crew by NASA. It will instead deliver necessary cargo to the orbital laboratory and allow in-flight validation of the system upgrades implemented following the Crew Flight Test missio

Starliner-2 is the second crewed operational flight of a Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

This is the 25th flight of the Orbital ATK's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 24th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The NG-22 Cygnus spacecraft was damaged during transport to Cape Canaveral in March 2025 and was shipped back to factory for repairs.

NASA’s Europa Clipper will fly by Earth for a second and final gravity assist on its way to Jupiter.

The Starliner-1 spacecraft will dock autonomously to the International Space Station, carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station.

First flight of the Dream Chaser Spaceplane, on a free-flying mission in Low Earth Orbit.

The second inflight abort test of the Gaganyaan program.

The Lunar Polar Exploration mission (LUPEX) is a robotic lunar mission jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), deploying a lunar rover and lander to explore the south pole region of the Moon. JAXA will provide the under-development H3 launch vehicle and the rover, while ISRO would be responsible for the lander.

First test launch of CASC/CALT’s Long March 10A rocket. Payload is expected to be a prototype of the Low Earth Orbit mission version of the Mengzhou crew spacecraft.

Second uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

Third uncrewed orbital test flight of the Gaganyaan capsule.

First launch of Stoke Space’s Nova launch vehicle. Asteroid mining technologies company AstroForge will fly a spacecraft on this launch. Planned reusability of the 2 stages is TBD.

Impulse Space's Mars Lander is designed to support research and development needed for human exploration of Mars.

Payload is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) nuclear thermal spacecraft.