Overview
- NASA’s Artemis II could launch as early as February on a 10-day lunar flyby, marking the first human trip to the moon’s vicinity since the early 1970s.
- Late 2026 lunar activity includes Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 with NASA and ESA payloads and China’s Chang’e 7 mission targeting the lunar south pole.
- Planetary missions on the docket feature JAXA’s MMX launch to Phobos in 2026 and a summer Venus Life Finder probe by Rocket Lab and MIT to study Venus’s clouds.
- Small-body science is expected to surge as China’s Tianwen-2 samples asteroid Kamoʻoalewa by mid-summer and ESA’s Hera arrives at Didymos near year-end, with JWST set to refine observations of asteroid 2024 YR4 in spring.
- Reusable launch advances are projected as SpaceX continues Starship flight tests throughout 2026 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn and LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 pursue additional flights following 2025 debuts.