What's Happening in Space: March 2025

A summary of space events through the month

This March, resident Space Expert, Dhara Patel, joins us once again to share star gazing opportunities and the latest space happenings!

Throughout March - Spot the International Space Station

From Leicester, there may be sightings throughout March to spot the International Space Station (ISS) moving across the sky. Download NASA’s Spot the Station app using the App Store or Google Play to find out when and where to spot the largest artificial satellite overhead from your location. It’ll look like a bright star moving relatively quickly across the sky (generally from west to east) and will be visible to the naked eye.

Throughout March – Stargazing challenges

Each month, we'll be sharing some stargazing challenges for everyone to have a go at. From spotting the Moon and familiar star patterns, to catching meteor showers and eclipses. Check out our Stargazing Challenges – March 2026 blog for more details.

3rd March - Full moon (11:37)

Known as the Worm moon (according to the old Farmers’ Almanac), this full moon is named as such because as the cold thawed, people were able to see worm trails on the warming grounds.. Check out the Full Moon: Full Facts blog written by Mike Darch in our Education team to find out more.

8th March - Saturn and Venus close in the sky

Saturn will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Venus during the later evening of 8 March but will have set below the horizon at this time. They’ll still appear close together earlier that evening so look towards the west as the Sun begins to set to spot Saturn positioned below Venus.

Both will be very close to the horizon so make sure you have a clear view to the west to improve your chances of seeing them. Venus will be the brighter of the two appearing as an evening star while Saturn will be tricker to spot as it’s the most distant of the naked eye planets. They should both be visible to the naked eye, but you’ll need to find the sweet spot of it being dark enough to spot their light vs. it being early enough that they’re still high enough above the horizon to see. By 18:30, the pair will begin disappearing below the western horizon so head out before then to catch them. Find out more about close approaches and conjunctions in our Astronomical phenomena blog written by David Southworth in our Education team.

19^th March – Isar Spectrum Flight Two

In 2025, a first attempt was made by Isar Aerospace, from Andøya Spaceport in Norway to launch an orbital-class rocket from European soil. In this test flight the rocket crashed roughly 20–30 seconds after launch and did not reach orbit. Both Spectrum Flight Two (again by Isar Aerospace, launching from Andøya Spaceport in Norway) and Rocket Factory Augsburg's (RFA) rocket launching from the SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland on the RFA ONE demo flight, are on the verge of becoming the first successful orbital flight from European soil. At present, Spectrum Flight Two has a scheduled launch date of no earlier than 19 March and is expected to carry approximately 150 kg of payload, including 19 small satellites, into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit.

20^th March – Moon and Venus close in the sky

The Moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Venus on the afternoon of 20 March and they’ll appear close together. But in the daytime sky, you won’t be able to spot them at this time. Instead look towards the west as the Sun begins to set to spot Venus nestled below the very thin waking crescent moon. Being one of Earth’s closest neighbours and due to its thick reflective atmosphere, Venus will appear like a bright shining star. The duo will be quite close to the horizon when they become visible so be sure to have a clear view of the western horizon to have a better chance of spotting them. By 19:15 they’ll have started to set so be sure to catch them before then. They should be visible to the naked eye, but you’ll need to find the sweet spot of it being dark enough to spot their light vs. it being early enough that they’re still high enough above the horizon to see. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about close approaches and conjunctions and other astronomical phenomena.

20^th March – vernal / spring equinox (14:46)

The Sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north, marking the first day of astronomical spring for the northern hemisphere. The length of daytime and nighttime on this day are almost equal. Find out more about Equinoxes and Solstices in this blog by Catherine Muller formerly in our Public Programmes team.

26^th March – Moon and Jupiter close in the sky

The waxing gibbous moon will be observable near Jupiter in the south during the evening of 26 March – appearing as the Sun begins to set. The Moon will be in conjunction (sharing the same right ascension – coordinate) with Jupiter in the early afternoon and will appear at their closest approach to each other a short time but they’ll be lost in the glare of daylight. As such look for them around 18:30 when they’ll easily be visible nice and high in the south making it an ideal time to look for them. Jupiter will appear just to the right of our lunar neighbour and both will be observable with the naked eye. They’ll be up throughout the night, setting in the north west in the early hours of the following morning, so there’s plenty of time in the evening to try and catch the pair, but they’ll slowly drift further apart as the night progresses. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about close approaches and conjunctions and other astronomical phenomena.

29^th March – lunar occultation of Regulus

On the evening of 29 March, the Moon will occult the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo. Over the space of a few hours the Moon will move in front of Regulus from our point of view on Earth blocking it from view before it reappears from behind the opposite side of the Moon. Because the disappearance of Regulus will occur around 19:15, daylight will make this beginning part of the occultation impossible to see. However, it will reappear around 20:20 from the behind the northern limb of the Moon - and in the twilight, you should be able to spot Regulus then. Look to the southeast just before 20:20 and use a pair of binoculars or a telescope to spot the spectacle. Although both the Moon and Regulus are visible to the naked eye, the bright moonlight will make it difficult to discern the star-like point of Regulus when it’s just reappearing – so you’ll need some optics to help you spot it when it’s right beside the Moon. Check out the astronomical phenomena blog linked above to find out more about occultations and other astronomical phenomena.

No earlier than March - Starship flight 12

Starship is made up of the Super Heavy booster – a first stage rocket with 33 of SpaceX’s raptor engines, and on top of that sits the upper stage - rather confusingly also called Starship (which hosts 6 engines). And when its fully developed, this launch vehicle will be a completely reusable rocket – both first and second stages. A modified version of Starship is also currently planned to land astronauts on the Moon with the (now) Artemis IV mission. Starship is due to launch on its twelfth test flight no earlier than March 2026 from SpaceX’s launch facility, Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, United States. This flight will be the first flight of version 3 of Starship as both the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster have received significant modifications that will allow it to demonstrate some of the core capabilities that will be needed for Artemis Program lander. It will also be the first flight from Starbase Pad 2 – the newly built second orbital launch pad at SpaceX's launch facility in Starbase. Find out more about Starship and SpaceX’s other rocketry achievements in our SpaceX – the world’s rocket giant blog by Ed Kellond-Turner in our Education team.

No earlier than April – Artemis II launch

Following a successful outcome after the second wet dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule (where technicians load the vehicle with fuel before running through a countdown to launch to check everything is working ahead of launch day), engineers discovered an issue with the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage. It required the SLS and Orion to be rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building to investigate the cause of the issue and fix it pushing the launch of Artemis 2 back to April at the earliest. Artemis 2 will be the first crewed flight in the Artemis Program. Launching on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion module spacecraft will carry NASA Astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, making a 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth. Though they won’t be landing on the Moon, the astronauts will be helping to test many of the onboard systems including communication, life support, and navigation.

NASA have also announced an update to the architecture of the Artemis Program adding an extra mission into the timeline. The Artemis III mission, now in 2027, will be designed to test out systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit to prepare for an Artemis IV crewed landing in 2028. Artemis III aims to include a rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin – the spacecrafts that will take humans from lunar orbit to landing on the Moon in Artemis IV and beyond. Artemis III will also test the new Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) suits ahead of them being used on the first lunar landing mission. You can find out more in our blog Artemis: Returning Humans to the Moon blog written by Ed Kellond-Turner in our Education team.