Major Space Missions and Milestones to Watch in 2026
Spaceflight will enter a dense year of activity in 2026, with missions spanning lunar exploration, commercial low-Earth orbit platforms, national human-spaceflight milestones, and observatories pursuing new science. While 2026 may not match the singular historical impact of 1957, 1961, or 1969, the calendar includes a sequence of launches and deployments that could reshape access to and knowledge of space.
Several projects in 2026 reflect broad trends: greater private-sector involvement in low-Earth orbit, renewed investment in lunar surface capabilities, expanded international participation in human spaceflight, and more affordable, focused science missions.
Pandora: a low-cost exoplanet hunter (Jan. 5)
The Pandora spacecraft is scheduled to launch in early January as a compact, low-cost exoplanet mission. Weighing 716 pounds and measuring roughly 17 inches across, Pandora is budgeted at $20 million and planned to operate for about a year. Rather than only measuring stellar brightness dips from transits, Pandora will analyze the chemical spectrum of starlight that passes through a planet’s atmosphere.
By identifying chemical fingerprints—such as water, methane or carbon dioxide—the mission aims to flag planets whose atmospheres contain compounds of biological interest. Pandora is intended as a targeted, economical complement to larger observatories.
Gaganyaan-1: India’s uncrewed human-capability test (early Jan.)
India intends to launch Gaganyaan-1, an uncrewed test of its crew capsule, atop a human-rated HLV-M3 rocket in early January. The flight will carry a humanoid robot named Vyomitra and is the first of three planned uncrewed missions ahead of a crewed flight the country hopes to attempt as early as 2027.
The Gaganyaan crew module is designed to carry three people in later missions. When crewed, a four-person crew selected by India would spend a minimum of three days aboard a habitable volume described as roughly equivalent to an SUV. The series of tests follows the incremental approach used historically by other national human-spaceflight programs.
Artemis II: a crewed translunar swingby (Feb. 5)
NASA’s Artemis II, slated for early February, represents a key human-spaceflight milestone. The Orion spacecraft will carry Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen on a roughly 10-day translunar journey that will loop around the far side of the moon and return to Earth.
The mission will not land or orbit the moon, but it will travel farther from Earth than any humans to date—reaching about 4,700 miles beyond the lunar far side. Orion and the Space Launch System have had multibillion-dollar development costs. Artemis II will also mark several firsts in representation among lunar voyagers.
Boeing Starliner: returning to an uncrewed test flight (April)
Boeing’s Starliner is scheduled for an uncrewed mission to the International Space Station in April. The vehicle previously carried a two-person shakedown crew but experienced thruster problems that extended that visit and led NASA to ground crewed flights pending corrective work.
NASA and Boeing have modified their original crew-rotation contract, reducing the minimum number of Starliner crewed flights. The April uncrewed flight will carry cargo and serve as a key demonstration to determine whether Starliner can resume crewed missions for station crew rotations.
Haven-1: the first private commercial station module (May)
Vast, a Long Beach, California company, plans to launch Haven-1 in May as an initial commercial low-Earth-orbit station module under NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development (CLD) program. The single bus-sized module offers about 45 cubic meters of habitable volume, roughly eight and a half times less than the International Space Station.
Haven-1 is intended to be more comfortable than earlier small modules, with private sleeping quarters, high-speed Internet and a large domed window. Initial crew rotations are expected to last about two weeks, with Vast planning additional interconnected modules over the coming years to expand laboratory and crew capacity.
Griffin-1 and FLIP rover: new commercial lunar surface capability (July)
In July, a Griffin-1 lander is due to deliver a golf-cart-sized rover called FLIP to the Nobile Crater near the moon’s south pole. Built by Astrobotic and Astrolab under a NASA initiative to lease commercial rovers for Artemis surface operations, FLIP weighs over half a ton and can carry about 110 pounds of cargo.
FLIP features four caster-mounted wheels that enable tight pivot turns and an infrared guidance system for semi-autonomous navigation. It serves as an early step toward larger commercial rovers—such as the planned FLEX logistics rover—that could carry heavy payloads and support astronaut traverses in future surface campaigns.
Additional missions and observatories
Blue Origin plans to attempt a Blue Moon landing as early as January aboard its New Glenn rocket, with the capability to carry cargo and crew. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a $4 billion observatory, could launch as early as fall 2026 to a position about one million miles from Earth to conduct exoplanet science, Milky Way surveys and studies of dark energy.
Together, these missions reflect a mixture of government and commercial investment across science, human spaceflight and infrastructure. If they proceed as planned, 2026 will be a year of notable first steps and demonstrations for the next phase of orbital and lunar activity.
Key Topics
2026 Spaceflight Missions, Pandora Exoplanet Mission, Exoplanet Atmosphere Spectroscopy, Gaganyaan-1 India Mission, Vyomitra Humanoid Robot, Artemis Ii Translunar Mission, Orion Spacecraft Mission, Boeing Starliner Uncrewed Test Flight, Haven-1 Commercial Space Station, Commercial Low-earth Orbit Platforms, Griffin-1 Lunar Lander, Flip Rover Lunar Exploration, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Blue Origin Blue Moon Landing, Nasa Commercial Leo Development Program