🚀 Space4All Monthly Space Roundup — August 2026

Your friendly guide to what’s up (literally) this month

⚡ THE BIG ONE — Solar Eclipse: 12 August

This is not a drill. Wednesday 12 August is arguably the most exciting skywatching day in years for the UK.

• 90–96% of the Sun will be covered across the UK and Ireland — that’s a near-total blackout in the middle of the day
• The South West of England gets the best view
• The total path crosses Greenland, Iceland, and Spain — the first total solar eclipse over mainland Europe since 1999
• It happens at the same time as the Perseids meteor shower peak (see below) — which is basically the universe showing off

⚠️ Safety note: Always use proper eclipse glasses or a pinhole projector. Never look directly at the sun!

Great source: Royal Observatory Greenwich guide | NASA eclipse page

☄️ Perseids Meteor Shower — Peaks 12–13 August

• One of the year’s best meteor showers, active through to 24 August
• Under dark skies you can see 100+ meteors per hour at peak
• No equipment needed — just find somewhere dark, lie back, and look up
• The Moon is new on the 12th, so this year the skies are especially dark — perfect conditions

Best for: the whole family, any age, any ability. Zero setup needed. Just look up.

🔭 The Big Launch — Roman Space Telescope: 30 August

This one is massive.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center on 30 August at 7:26am EDT (12:26pm UK time).

Here’s why it’s exciting:

• It has the same size mirror as Hubble — but sees a patch of sky 100 times wider
• Built mainly to map dark matter and dark energy — the mysterious stuff that makes up most of the universe
• Scientists are calling it a “universe-changer” and it’s launching 9 months ahead of schedule
• Cost: $4 billion. Value: priceless.

You can watch it live — great one to share with learners!

Source: Space.com Roman Telescope preview

🧑‍🚀 Up on the ISS — Spacewalk Season

The astronauts aboard the ISS have been busy this August — three spacewalks are scheduled to upgrade and maintain the station.

• Astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon led the first walk
• The upgrades keep the ISS running smoothly as it heads toward its eventual decommission
• A crew of 4 astronauts is scheduled to launch to the ISS on 12 September, so the current crew is preparing to hand over

Spacewalks last around 6–7 hours and astronauts can move at around 17,500 mph while doing the repairs — while also being in the vacuum of space. Casual.

Source: NASA Spacewalk coverage

🛸 SpaceX — Still Going Absolutely Wild

SpaceX is on track for 13 launches in August alone. To put that in perspective, the whole of 2010 had 2.

• Regular Starlink and Globalstar satellite launches throughout the month from Florida and California
• Starship Flight 14 is targeting NET (No Earlier Than) late August — this would be the vehicle’s first proper orbital flight and could include the first attempt at catching the Ship section on return
• Flight 13’s Starship is reportedly still being recovered from the Indian Ocean after a dramatic end to its last mission — SpaceX’s recovery team is out there working on it

Source: SpaceX launches | Orbital Briefing

🌕 Partial Lunar Eclipse — 27–28 August

Bookending the month with another sky event:

• A partial lunar eclipse is visible from the UK on the night of 27–28 August
• In London, it begins at 03:33 BST — so an early morning one for the dedicated!
• The Moon takes on an eerie reddish tinge as it moves into Earth’s shadow

🇬🇧 UK Stargazing Events This Month

Some great in-person events happening:

• Cambrian Mountains Stargazing Weekend — 14–16 August, Wigwam Holidays Hafren, Wales (gostargazing.co.uk)
• Astronomy Festival — 28–30 August, The Observatory (the-observatory.org)
• Dark sky sites across the UK will be buzzing during the Perseids — check gostargazing.co.uk for your nearest event

🌍 Rest of the World

• Japan launches QZS-7 (Michibiki-7) navigation satellite — 10 August, boosting their GPS-equivalent network
• China’s Chang’e 7 lunar mission is still in 2026 planning — no firm date yet, but this one will attempt to find water ice at the Moon’s south pole. Big deal.
• JAXA HTV-X2 cargo mission to ISS is also in the pipeline for later in the year