What's Happening in Space: February 2025

A summary of space events through the month

It's a shorter month but that doesn't mean a lack of interesting goings-on up in space! Here is Dhara Patel (our resident Space Expert) sharing her round-up of some notable space and science events coming up in the weeks ahead...

Throughout February – spot the International Space Station

There may be sightings throughout February to spot the International Space Station moving across the sky – use NASA’s Spot the Station to find out when and where to spot the largest artificial satellite overhead. You may be able to spot the station shortly after sunset on 1^st February (it’ll pass below Venus, the Moon and Saturn in the southwest), or possibly during the latter half of the month.

1^st-9^th February – National Astronomy Week

National Astronomy Week 2025 falls during the first week of February and the theme is ‘Chasing the Moon’. Watch the Moon as it traverses across the sky over the week, passing numerous planets and bright stars. Some of the close encounters are noted below, but check out our 5 stargazing challenges – National Astronomy Week blog to find out more.

4^th February – New Shepard | NS-29 launch

Unlike previous missions, Blue Origin’s New Shephard rocket is scheduled to launch with technological payloads rather than crew on its 29^th mission. NS-29 is due to take off from the company’s spaceport - Launch Site One in West Texas at 15:30 on 4^th February. In this suborbital flight, the capsule’s Reaction Control System will be used to spin the craft up to approximately 11 revolutions per minute thereby simulating one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. In this simulated lunar gravity, 29 of the 30 payloads will be able to test their lunar related technologies. Blue Origin hopes that this sort of flight will provide customers including NASA with the ability to ready technologies for the Moon at a much lower cost.

6^th February – Moon and Jupiter close in the sky

Look for Jupiter close to the Moon during the evening of 6^th February in the southern sky. The waxing gibbous moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Jupiter in the early hours of the following morning. The pair should be visible from sunset as the sky begins to darken, up until the early hours of the following morning when they set below the horizon, but are best viewed around 18:00 when they’ll be high in the sky. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about close approaches and conjunctions.

12^th February – full moon (13:53)

Known as the Snow moon (according to the old Farmers’ Almanac), this full moon is named due to the cold and snowy Februarys experienced in North America. Check out the Full Moon: Full Facts blog written by Mike Darch in our Education team to find out more.

16th February – Venus at greatest brightness

Because the inner planets pass close to the Sun making them difficult to see, an apparition is a period of time when they are visible from Earth. On 16^th February Venus will be at its greatest observable brightness (also known as its greatest brilliancy) during this apparition. Look to the west from around sunset to spot the brightest object in the night sky – coming only second to the Moon. It will set by 21:00 so make sure you have clear views without tall buildings and trees to help you spot it more easily.

27^th February – SPHEREx & PUNCH launch

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission is a new telescope with a target launch date f no earlier than 27th February from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA on a Falcon 9 rocket. It will help improve our understanding of the structure of the universe and how galaxies form and evolve, as well as the origins and abundance of water as a key ingredient for life in our galaxy. From a sun-synchronous polar orbit (meaning it will pass over the same location on Earth at the same time each day), the telescope will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light over its two-year planned mission.

Ridesharing on the launch is NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission – from low Earth orbit, this constellation of four small satellites will make global, 3D observations of the Sun's outermost layer called the corona, to help us understand how the mass and energy there become solar wind.

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.