Space Calendar April 2021: Know What's Happening in Space

Space Calendar April 2021: These dates are subject to change. Launch dates are taken from Space.com.

April 2021

April 6: Conjunction of the moon and the planet Saturn. The waning crescent moon will swing about 4 degrees to the south of Saturn in the dawn sky.

April 7: Conjunction of the moon and the planet Jupiter. The waning crescent moon will swing about 4 degrees to the south of Jupiter in the dawn sky.

April 7: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network in a mission designated Starlink 23. It will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:34 p.m. EDT (1634 GMT).

April 9: A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the crewed Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft to the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov. It will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 GMT). The Soyuz MS-18 is scheduled to arrive at the space station at 6:47 a.m. EDT (1047 GMT).

April 11: The new moon arrives at 10:31 p.m. EDT (0231 April 12 GMT).

April 15: Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, commander of International Space Station Expedition 64, will hand over command of the station to NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, who arrived with the SpaceX Crew-1 mission in November 2020. This will mark the start of ISS Expedition 65.

April 16-17: NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will return to Earth from the International Space Station Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. The spacecraft will undock from the ISS at 9:34 p.m. EDT (0134 April 17 GMT) and land near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on April 17 at 12:57 a.m. EDT (0457 GMT).

April 17: Lunar occultation of Mars. The waxing crescent moon will briefly pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in Asia. Elsewhere in the world, the moon will make a close approach to Mars. Look for the pair above the western horizon after sunset.

April 18: India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk. 2 (designated GSLV-F10) will launch India's first GEO Imaging Satellite, or GISAT 1. It will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.

April 19: An Arianespace Vega rocket, designated VV18, will launch the Pléiades Neo 1 Earth observation satellite for Airbus and multiple rideshare payloads. The mission will lift off from the Guiana Spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:50 p.m. EDT (0150 April 20 GMT).

April 22: A SpaceX Crew Dragon will launch the Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Onboard will be four crewmembers: NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. It will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:11 a.m. EDT (1011 GMT).

April 21-22: The Lyrid meteor shower, which is active April 16-30, peaks overnight.

April 25: Arianespace will use a Soyuz rocket to launch 36 satellites into orbit for the OneWeb internet constellation. The mission, called OneWeb 6, will lift off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 March 25 GMT).

April 26: A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket will launch a classified spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The mission, titled NROL-82, will lift off from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

April 26: The full moon of April, known as the Full Pink Moon, arrives at 11:32 p.m. EDT (0332 April 27 GMT). Because the moon will also be near perigee, or its closest point to Earth, this will also be a so-called "supermoon."

April 29: A Chinese Long, March 5B rocket, will launch Tianhe 1, the core module for a Chinese space station low Earth orbit. It will lift off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China's Hainan province.