What's Happening in Space: April 2025
- 2nd Apr 2025
- Author: Dhara Patel
A summary of space events through the month
The National Space Centre's Space Expert Dhara Patel is here once again to share her excellent round-up of some notable space and science events coming up in the weeks ahead...
Throughout April – spot the International Space Station
There may be sightings throughout April to spot the International Space Station (ISS) moving across the sky – use NASA’s Spot the Station to find out when and where to spot the largest artificial satellite overhead. It’ll look like a bright star moving relatively quickly across the sky and will be visible to the naked eye. There aren’t any sightings from Leicester for the first third of the month but look out for other opportunities through the latter part of April.
Throughout April – Stargazing challenges
Each month, the National Space Centre will be sharing a trio of stargazing challenges for everyone to have a go at. From spotting the Moon and familiar star patterns, to catching meteor showers and some deep sky objects. Check out Stargazing Challenges - April 2025 blog for more details.
1st April – Fram2
Named in honour of the ship that helped explorers first reach Earth’s Arctic and Antarctic regions, Fram2 will launch into a 90° circular orbit from Florida, making it the first human spaceflight to fly over Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit. This will make it the highest inclination achieved by human spaceflight to date (the current record is 65° by the Soviet Vostok 6 mission which carried Valentina Tereshkova in 1963). The mission commander will be Chun Wang, an entrepreneur and explorer, with Jannicke Mikkelsen (a film director and cinematographer) taking the role of vehicle commander. The vehicle pilot will be Eric Philips, a professional polar adventurer and guide with ski expedition experience at the Poles, and the final crew member will be mission specialist Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Berlin. The mission is scheduled to launch at 2:46 on 1st April from Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. And the SpaceX Dragon capsule, Resilience, used for this mission will feature a cupola (window) to allow for observation as the crew orbit at an altitude of 425 – 450 km for three to five days.
2nd April / 30th April – Moon and Jupiter close in the sky
Look for Jupiter close to the Moon during the late evening, approaching midnight, of 2nd April, in the north-western sky. The waxing crescent moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Jupiter after midnight but the pair will be below the horizon at that time. The duo should be visible with the naked eye from sunset on 2nd April as the sky begins to darken, up until around midnight when they’ll begin to set below the horizon. While they’ll be easier to spot together when they’re high in the west in the early evening, they get slightly closer as the night unfolds so best views will be around midnight, but you’ll need clear view of the horizon to spot them low in the north-west.
They’ll again, sit close beside each other at the end of the month on 30th April. At this time, they’ll be in conjunction around 18:00 when the skies are still light, so wait until the sun sets a short while later and look for Jupiter beside the waxing crescent moon in the early evening sky looking west. Find out more about close approaches and conjunctions in our astronomical phenomena blog written by David Southworth in our Education Team.
5th April – Moon and Mars close in the sky
Look for Mars positioned incredibly close to the Moon during the evening of 5th April in the south-western sky. The first quarter moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Mars around 20:00. They should be visible from sunset as the sky begins to darken, up until the early hours of the following morning when they’ll set in northwestern sky. The best time to view them will be when they’re closest together and high in the sky – so try and spot them in the evening before midnight – they’ll be visible to the naked eye. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about close approaches and conjunctions.
13th April – full moon (01:22)
Known as the Pink moon (according to the old Farmers’ Almanac), this full moon is named after the pink phlox flowers that bloom in spring. Check out the Full Moon: Full Facts blog written by Mike Darch in our Education team to find out more.
14th April – New Shepard | NS-31 launch
NS-31 will be the eleventh crewed sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin. The crew will launch on a New Shepard rocket from Launch Site One in West Texas. This historic all-female NS-31 tourist flight will include well-known personalities including civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen who will become the first Vietnamese woman to fly to space, American TV-host Gayle King, pop star and celebrity Katy Perry, film producer Kerianne Flynn, Aisha Bowe -former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur and motivational speaker, and finally journalist, author and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez (also the partner of Blue Origin's founder Jeff Bezos). Scheduled for launch at 14:30 on 14th April, the NS-31 crew will fly to just above the Kármán line at 100km altitude – considered the boundary of space. The reusable booster and crew capsule flying the passengers will operate autonomously without the need for pilots. The flight will last about 11 minutes (launch to landing) and during that time, the crew will experience around four minutes of weightlessness along with panoramic views of Earth's curvature and the blackness of space above.
21st April – Mercury at greatest western elongation
Because Mercury orbits closer to the Sun than Earth, it always appears quite close to the Sun in the sky, being lost in its glare most of the time. However, Mercury will be at its furthest separation from the Sun as seen from Earth on 21stApril when it reaches greatest western elongation, making it a great time to try and spot the Sun’s closest planet. Look to the southeast just before sunrise – it will be incredibly close to the horizon, so you’ll need a good clear view without tall buildings and trees. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog above to find out more about greatest elongations and other astronomical phenomena.
22nd/23rd April – peak of the Lyrid meteor shower
An average shower, with roughly 20 meteors per hour at its peak, the Lyrids are produced by dust left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The meteors will radiate from the constellation Lyra (in the east around midnight) but can appear anywhere in the sky. Peaking on the night of the 22nd and morning of the 23rd, best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. The radiant will continue to rise higher into the sky during the early morning of the 23rd, so it might be best to head out in the early hours and look until just before sunrise when the radiant will be higher up in the southeast. The waning crescent moon will appear around sunrise so viewing conditions won’t be spoilt with moonlight. If you miss the peak, the shower is active between 16th-25th April. The Lyrids tend to be bright fast meteors, some with trains. You can find out more in our blog about the Lyrids meteor shower 2025.
25th April – Moon, Venus and Saturn close in the sky
Look for the thin waning crescent moon near Venus and Saturn during the early morning of 25th April before sunrise in the eastern sky. Venus will appear like a bright star and sit above the Moon with Saturn being fainter positioned below our lunar neighbour. The Moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Venus little earlier that morning whilst below the horizon, and will be in conjunction with Saturn just before the sun rises that morning. The trio should be visible from around 5:00 for a short time, before daylight begins to drown them out. They’ll be visible to the naked eye, but clear views without tall buildings and trees will help you spot them more easily especially as they’ll be low on the horizon. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about close approaches and conjunctions.
27th April - new moon (20:31)
The new moon will occur in the constellation of Aries. The lack of moonlight interference provides a great time to try and view deep sky objects (especially with the aid of binoculars and telescopes). We have a blog on Moon phaseswritten by Mike Darch in our Education team.
29th April – Biomass
Currently scheduled for launch at 10:15 on 29th April, ESA’s Biomass mission will take off on a Vega C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre (Europe’s South American launch facility in French Guiana). Selected in 2013 by ESA’s Earth Observation Programme Board as its seventh Earth Explorer mission, this innovative satellite is designed to determine the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the world’s forests with greater accuracy than ever before. Using a specific wavelength of radar (P-band) which has never been used for these measurements before, Biomass will be able to penetrate the forest canopies from space and analyse the scattered radar signals to work out the height and volume of trees, giving us better estimates of the carbon stored in forests globally. This information, especially for the tropic regions, is essential to our understanding of the role of forests in Earth’s carbon cycle and in climate change. Our blog: Biomass: Weighing Carbon Stored In Forests, will soon be up for you to find out more about this important mission.
Please note: As this summary is created at the end of the month before, dates (especially launch dates) can often change or be updated, so this content may become outdated - we always recommend checking on the relevant organisation's pages.