What’s Up: May 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA

Shooting stars before dawn, a brilliant meetup between the Moon and Venus and a rare blue moon to end the month

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower brings shooting stars before dawn, the Moon meets brilliant Venus after sunset, and May wraps up with a rare Blue Moon.

Skywatching Highlights

• May 5 + 6 : Best time to see the Eta Aquarids 
• May 18: Moon and Venus conjunction
• May 31: Blue moon

Transcript

Shooting stars before dawn, a brilliant meetup between the Moon and Venus, and a rare “Blue Moon” to end the month.

That’s What’s Up this May.

First up: the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which peaks in early May.

These shooting stars come from Halley’s Comet. Every year, Earth passes through the comet’s dusty trail, and those tiny particles burn up in our atmosphere. That’s what creates those bright streaks across the sky.

Halley’s Comet last passed through the inner solar system in 1986, and won’t return until 2061.

The Eta Aquarids appear to come from the constellation Aquarius. That’s where the shower gets its name.

These meteors are fast, racing into Earth’s atmosphere at about 40 miles per second. And because they’re moving so quickly, they can leave behind glowing trails that linger for a moment after the flash.

At peak, the shower can produce up to about 50 meteors an hour under ideal skies. The best time to watch? In the hours before dawn, looking generally toward the eastern sky.

For the best chance of seeing meteor showers, go somewhere dark, let your eyes adjust for about 20 to 30 minutes, and avoid bright lights, including your phone screen.

The peak is expected around May 5th to 6th, but bright moonlight this year may wash out some of the fainter meteors.

On May 18th, look west just after sunset.

The Moon gets a bright little sidekick as Venus shines nearby. The crescent Moon helps point the way, making this an easy one to spot.

Venus is one of the brightest objects we can see from Earth, often called the Evening Star.

The Moon and Venus look close together because they line up from our point of view on Earth. But in reality, they’re separated by millions of miles in space.

Last month, Artemis II launched right around the time of the April 1st Full Moon, sending astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and giving us some spectacular new views of our closest neighbor.

And now, May ends with another lunar moment: a Full Moon on May 31st. This one is a Blue Moon.

But it actually won’t look blue.

Blue Moon is the name given to the second Full Moon in a single calendar month. It’s a relatively rare event, hence the phrase “once in a blue moon.”

So whether you’re up before sunrise or out after sunset, May is a great time to look up.

Here are the phases of the Moon for May.

You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.

I’m Raquel Villanueva from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.

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Artemis III Moon Rocket Core Stage on the Move

Teams move the core stage, or largest section, of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for NASA’s Artemis III mission into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photo from April 27, 2026.

The SLS core stage traveled 900 miles on the Pegasus barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the stage is manufactured, to complete assembly of the massive rocket at NASA Kennedy. 

This mission will launch crew aboard the Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS rocket to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the Moon.

Image credit: NASA/Glenn Benson

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Monika Luabeya

NASA Welcomes Morocco as 64th Artemis Accords Signatory 

The Kingdom of Morocco signed the Artemis Accords on April 29th during a ceremony in the country’s capital, Rabat, becoming the latest nation to commit to the responsible exploration of space.

“It is my privilege to welcome the Kingdom of Morocco as the newest signatory to the Artemis Accords,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in recorded remarks. “The accords began as the framework for like-minded nations to come together for the peaceful exploration of space. But now, under President Trump’s vision for an enduring presence on the lunar surface, Artemis Accords partners will be able to make meaningful contributions to that collective effort. Citizens from every Artemis nation will play a pivotal role in humanity’s greatest adventure.”

Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita of Morocco signed the accords on behalf of the country. Bourita underscored Morocco’s commitment to shared values across a range of critical sectors.

The signing ceremony took place during the Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau’s official visit to Morocco with the U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Duke Buchan III also participating in the event.

In 2020, during the first Trump Administration, the United States, led by NASA and the State Department, joined with seven other founding nations to establish the Artemis Accords, responding to the growing interest in lunar activities by both governments and private companies. The accords introduced the first set of practical principles aimed at enhancing the safety and coordination between like-minded nations as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.  

Signing the Artemis Accords means committing to explore peaceably and transparently, to render aid to those in need, to enable access to scientific data that all of humanity can learn from, to ensure activities do not interfere with those of others, and to preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices for space exploration for the benefit of all. 

More countries are expected to sign the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead, as NASA continues its work to establish a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space. 

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at: 

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

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Elizabeth Shaw

NASA Goddard’s Greenbelt Visitor Center Marks 50th Anniversary

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NASA Goddard’s Greenbelt Visitor Center Marks 50th Anniversary

Trimmed in bicentennial pageantry, NASA opened a visitor center at its Goddard campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, in May 1976. Fifty years on, the Goddard Visitor Center continues to inspire through exhibits and programs on the past, present, and future of space exploration.

When the visitor center first opened its doors (just a few weeks before the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington), much of it was open-air. Instead of gilded scissors, a reenactment of Dr. Robert Goddard’s first rocket launch snapped the ribbon.

Initial exhibits featured a full-scale mockup of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (a Hubble telescope precursor), a phone station to transmit guests’ voices 45,000 miles round trip through Applications Technology Satellite-3, and an active meteorology station displaying satellite views of Western Hemisphere weather.

“The visitor center serves the community by providing engaging exhibits and programming focused on the work of NASA overall and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in particular,” said Amanda Harvey, the visitor center’s engagement coordinator. “We are an important place for people to discover, explore, and experience what it is that NASA does.”

Longtime staffer “D.J.” Emmanuel is himself proof-positive of the sentiment: “The first time I actually got introduced to Goddard was at a talk to see the tools astronauts used during the first Hubble servicing mission in 1993.” He started volunteering his time at the visitor center and then transitioned to fulltime staff.

Harvey and Emmanuel are employees of the NASA Communication Services contract, and the two operate the visitor center with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers.

The original structure and grounds of the visitor center housed WWV, a radio station for what was then the Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST). The station relocated to Colorado in the mid-1960s — campus legend maintains that WWV’s broadcasts interfered with Apollo Program tests and necessitated the move. NASA Goddard used the transmitter building for facility maintenance storage until renovations for a visitor center began in earnest in 1975.

As space exploration has advanced and NASA Goddard’s contributions have evolved, so too has the visitor center, which today hosts a 4K science film movie theater, Hubble telescope artifacts, a custom-programmed Roman telescope video game arcade console — no quarters required — and several more displays and activities.

“I keep going back and looking at the exhibits and reading something new that I haven’t read before,” Emmanuel said. “It’s a great way to introduce kids to the world of science and to space.”

And as much as the visitor center enriches its guests, the reverse is also true: “My favorite memories usually involve young visitors dressed like astronauts,” Harvey said. “Their excitement is palpable and so inspiring. It makes me want to have more programs and serve my community the best that I can!”

Over its first decade of operations, the visitor center hosted just shy of 600,000 guests. Thousands upon thousands more have come in the years since, with virtual field trips now also helping bring NASA Goddard beyond the local community.

Some things, though, have not changed since that rocket-powered ribbon-cutting 50 years ago: Now as then, a towering, 100-foot-tall Delta-B rocket still watches over the grounds. A seed taken to the Moon aboard Apollo 14 grew into the sycamore that has stood by the main entrance for decades.

And just as it was in 1976, the cost of admission is free.

The NASA Goddard Visitor Center will celebrate its 50th on Saturday, May 2, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. No RSVP is required.

For more information on events and programs:

https://www.nasa.gov/visitgoddard

Research and multimedia assistance for this story was provided by the NASA Goddard Archives. Researchers may direct reference requests to history@mail.nasa.gov.

By Rob Garner
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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NASA Explores Prioritizing First Response Drones in Crowded Skies

Our streets are crowded with commuters and delivery vehicles, but when a police car or fire engine approaches with its lights and sirens on, drivers clear the way. In the coming years, drones for deliveries and other commercial tasks will become common in the skies over our communities, and NASA is working to ensure first responder vehicles in the air get the same kind of clearance that they do on the ground.

A recent flight exercise in the North Texas region showed how airspace prioritization tools could help first responder drones move quickly and safely through crowded skies. Researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley teamed up with local and state public safety agencies, industry partners, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test how emergency crews could get priority airspace access in real time. The exercise is the latest collaboration between NASA and FAA in the area. North Texas is an FAA-designated region that allows for commercial drone deliveries to fly daily.

When a police, fire, or rescue drone launched during the exercise, other drones would move aside. When multiple public safety organizations responded to simulated emergencies, their officials communicated to prioritize access for the right drones.

“Just as ambulances use lights and sirens to signal vehicles to move out of the way, public safety operators require the ability to share airspace safely,” said Abhay Borade, a research lead for the Air Traffic Management and Safety project at NASA Ames. “The key is to prioritize safety of flight operations, while balancing the efficient use of the airspace for all operators.”

The Texas testing helped NASA better understand how commercial flights differ from public safety drone missions – emergency crews rarely fly predictable routes. During a search, a pursuit, or when scanning a dangerous environment, they may need to change direction suddenly.

Researchers collected data on how unpredictable vehicle movements – demonstrated by having a drone follow an officer driving an SUV erratically, simulating a fleeing suspect in a vehicle chase – might affect nearby commercial drone activity. The result demonstrated NASA’s development of air traffic systems and tools to prioritize public safety operators as commercial drone usage increases.

“By working closely with industry and federal partners, we’re helping build the data, tools, and traffic management frameworks needed to ensure the future of drone operations is safe, responsible, and scalable for everyone,” said Shivanjli Sharma, Air Traffic Management and Safety project manager at NASA Ames. Participants involved in the demonstration included the drone airspace management companies Drone Sense, Avision, ANRA Technologies, as well as the FAA, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the police departments from the Texas cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, and Irving.

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