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Mission Space Lab 2026/27 Opens with Major Rule Changes

International / Space Science / Coding

Registration for Mission Space Lab 2026/27 opened on 14 September 2026, with entries closing at 12:00 CET on 22 February 2027.

Eligible programs are expected to run on the International Space Station (ISS) between April and May 2027, with certificates and collected data distributed between May and June 2027.

Major Change: From a Fixed Task to Open Space Science Research

The 2026/27 competition introduces a significant change to the Mission Space Lab format.

In 2025/26, all teams worked on the same prescribed challenge: writing a Python program to calculate the speed of the ISS as accurately as possible.

For 2026/27, teams are no longer restricted to calculating ISS speed. Instead, they can design their own original space science investigation. Teams may also follow official guidance to investigate areas such as:

  • Vegetation
  • ISS speed
  • Earth imaging

Programs must use at least one Sense HAT sensor or Astro Pi camera and must save sensor data or at least one photograph.

Technical Requirements

Each eligible program can receive up to 10 minutes of runtime on the ISS.

Programs must:

  • Use Python 3.13
  • Include a main.py file in the submitted ZIP
  • Keep the ZIP file below 3 MB
  • Store no more than 42 images by the end of execution

Assessment now focuses on whether the program meets the required technical and safety standards, whether the collected data is relevant to the team’s research question, and whether the code is clear, stable and includes appropriate error handling.

This means teams now need to define a research question, decide what data they need to collect, and plan how that data will be analysed. Scientific investigation and project design therefore play a much larger role in the competition than in the previous fixed-task format.

Eligibility

Mission Space Lab is open to eligible teams aged 12–19 from the UK, Ireland and other regions covered by the ESA participation rules.

Students in the United States are generally not eligible under the standard geographical participation rules.

Official website: Mission Space Lab

2026/27 Rulebook: Mission Space Lab Rulebook

CompeteMap: View Mission Space Lab on CompeteMap