NASA Sets 2026 Lunabotics Competition Dates

NASA is bringing its annual Lunabotics robotics competition back to Florida next spring, putting student-built machines and lunar problem-solving in the spotlight for three straight days.

The agency said the 2026 Lunabotics Challenge will run from Tuesday, May 19, through Thursday, May 21, at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Competition hours are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, and NASA says viewers who cannot attend in person can follow the action through livestream links posted on the agency’s Lunabotics page.

Lunabotics has become one of NASA’s recurring showcases for robotics talent, asking teams to tackle challenges tied to work on the Moon. While the agency’s announcement focused on logistics, the event’s broader appeal remains clear: it gives students and educators a direct line to the kinds of engineering problems that shape future lunar missions.

NASA’s annual Lunabotics Challenge turns a student competition into a public window on the skills and systems that future Moon work will demand.

NASA also opened the door to press coverage, signaling that the competition will draw wider public attention beyond participating teams. That matters because events like Lunabotics do more than crown winners. They help translate the agency’s long-term lunar ambitions into something visible, practical, and easy to grasp: robots that must dig, move, and operate in ways that echo real mission demands.

As May approaches, the next milestone will center on who competes, what designs emerge, and how NASA frames the challenge within its wider Moon agenda. For students, the contest offers a proving ground. For the public, it offers a rare chance to watch early-stage space engineering unfold in real time.