Live space tools for KS1 to A level, matched to the science curriculum from Year 3. Stages follow the National Curriculum in England, with a section for Scotland and notes for Wales and Northern Ireland. Each card has a learning outcome and a 10-minute activity.
Space for Schools: United Kingdom matches 22 free live space tools to the National Curriculum in England, Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence and National 5 Physics, in 26 classroom activities. Each one has a learning outcome and a 10-minute activity. Curriculum links last reviewed November 2026.
Space is not on the KS1 science curriculum in England, but young children love it. These are pitched at ages 5 to 7 and work well for early observation and talk.
Short video lessons for young children with Orby, our Earth mascot.
name some of the lights they can see in the night sky, and say which ones are made by people.
Watch one Lights in the Sky lesson together, then pupils draw what they might see from their bedroom window tonight.
Free printable colouring pages starring Orby, in A4 and US Letter, each tied to a short video lesson.
talk about what they have drawn: a rocket, the Moon, a satellite or the ISS.
Print one page per pupil. While they colour, ask each table one question about their picture.
Your class's art and postcards flown to space and back with Club for the Future. Free to take part.
design a postcard about why space matters to them, and see it go to space.
Each pupil designs one postcard. Follow the steps on the page to send the class set together.
How to tell a plane, a planet, a satellite and a star apart.
sort lights in the sky into natural ones and ones made by people.
Show four mystery lights on the board. The class votes on each one, then checks the answer with the guide.
Matched to Year 3 Light (the Sun can be dangerous, shadows), Year 5 Earth and space (the Sun, Earth and Moon, day and night, the planets) and Year 6 Light (we see things because light reaches our eyes).
Why you must never look straight at the Sun, and the safe ways to watch an eclipse.
explain why looking at the Sun is dangerous, and describe a safe way to see it.
Make a pinhole viewer from two pieces of card, then use it in the playground to see the Sun's image, with backs to the Sun.
Every upcoming eclipse, and how much of the Sun will be covered from your town.
explain that a solar eclipse is the Moon's shadow falling on the Earth.
Look up the 2 August 2027 eclipse for your town. Then model it with a torch, a football and a tennis ball.
London · Birmingham · Manchester · Cardiff · Belfast · Glasgow · Edinburgh
A live 3D Moon, lit the way it is right now.
describe how the Moon moves around the Earth and, as an extension, why its shape seems to change over a month.
Look at today's Moon on the globe. Each pupil sketches the real Moon at home every night for a week, then the class compares.
A live map of the solar system, with every working deep-space spacecraft where it is today.
describe how the Earth and the other planets move around the Sun.
Find the spacecraft closest to the Sun and the one furthest away. Which planets do pupils pass on the way out?
When the space station passes over your town, to the minute, and where to look.
explain that the ISS orbits the Earth, as the Moon does, and that we see it because it reflects sunlight into our eyes.
Find the next pass for your town. Pupils watch for it at home with an adult and report back how many seconds they saw it.
London · Manchester · Birmingham · Glasgow · Edinburgh
Where the ISS is right now, and how fast it is going.
use the idea of the Earth's rotation to explain day and night, by watching the line between day and night move across the map.
Put the tracker on the board at the start and end of the lesson. Mark the edge of the night side each time. Which way has it moved, and why?
Matched to Space physics (weight and gravitational field strength, our Sun as a star, the light year) and Magnetism (the Earth's magnetic field).
How far each spacecraft is, and how long its signal takes to reach us.
use the light year (and the light-day) as a unit of astronomical distance.
Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth on 18 November 2026. Light travels about 300,000 km every second: how far is that in km?
Real-time 3D globes of the Moon, Mars and the Sun.
explain why their weight would be different on the Moon and on Mars (W = mg).
Pupils work out their weight on the Moon (g is about 1.6 N/kg) and on Mars (about 3.7 N/kg), then spin each globe.
A live 3D globe of our nearest star.
describe the Sun as a star, one of billions in our galaxy.
The Sun is about 109 times wider than the Earth. Pupils scale it: if the Earth were a 1 cm bead, how big would the Sun be?
Tonight's chance of seeing the northern lights, town by town.
explain that the Earth has a magnetic field, and that the aurora happens when particles from the Sun meet it near the poles.
Check tonight's forecast for your town, then for Inverness and Tromsø. Why does it change as you go north?
Inverness · Aberdeen · Edinburgh · Glasgow · Newcastle · Belfast · Manchester · London
Matched to GCSE Physics Space physics (separate science only: the solar system, orbits, natural and artificial satellites), plus circular motion and the uses of microwaves, which Combined Science covers too.
Every tracked satellite in orbit, moving live.
explain that a satellite in a circular orbit has a constant speed but a changing velocity.
Pick one satellite in low orbit and one much higher. Which moves faster across the globe, and why?
Low, medium, geostationary and polar orbits, and what each one is used for.
compare orbits at different heights and match each to its use.
Give groups five satellite jobs (weather, phone, GPS, TV, photos). Which orbit suits each one?
Where the Starlink internet satellites are right now.
explain why satellites use microwaves to send signals through the atmosphere.
How many Starlink satellites are up today? Discuss why a low orbit needs so many more satellites than a geostationary one.
Asteroids and comets passing close to the Earth.
recall the main features of our solar system, and explain that the Sun's gravity keeps asteroids and comets in orbit.
Find this month's closest approach. How many times further than the Moon (about 384,000 km) does it pass?
A free, self-paced Academy course: LEO, MEO and GEO, inclination, orbital periods and the link between height and speed.
explain what keeps a satellite in orbit, and why higher orbits are slower.
Set one lesson as homework. Start the next lesson with its quiz questions.
Matched to A level Physics Gravitational fields and Circular motion. Orbit details (T squared proportional to r cubed, geostationary orbits, the energy of an orbiting satellite) come from exam board specifications, so check yours.
Orbit details for thousands of satellites: height, period and inclination.
test Kepler's third law (T squared is proportional to r cubed) on real satellites.
Take five satellites at different heights. Plot period squared against orbit radius cubed (add 6,371 km to each height). Is it a straight line?
Every satellite in geostationary orbit, parked over one spot on the equator.
show why a geostationary orbit is about 36,000 km above the Earth.
Use a 24-hour period and Newton's law of gravitation to find the orbit radius, then compare it with the satellites listed.
Satellites and rocket stages due to come back down, and when.
use the total energy of an orbiting satellite to explain why drag makes a low orbit decay, and where that energy goes on re-entry.
Pick an object due to re-enter this week. Estimate its kinetic energy at 7.8 km/s if it has a mass of 1,000 kg.
Matched to the Planet Earth: Space experiences and outcomes (First to Third level) and to National 5 Physics: Space.
A live 3D Moon, lit the way it is right now.
record the Moon over time and link its changes to the length of a month.
Keep a class Moon diary for four weeks, checking each drawing against the globe.
A live map of the solar system, with every working deep-space spacecraft where it is today.
use a simple model to show size, scale and movement in the solar system.
Lay out the planets on the playground at the same scale as the map. Where would Voyager 1 be?
The rovers on Mars, where they are and what they are looking for.
make a reasoned argument about whether life could exist elsewhere in the universe.
What does each rover need to find to show Mars once had life? Groups argue for or against.
Satellites and rocket stages due to come back down, and when.
describe re-entry through an atmosphere as a risk of crewed space exploration, and explain why spacecraft need thermal protection.
Why do some objects burn up completely while others reach the ground? Use two objects from the tracker.
These tools fit the Science and Technology area of the Curriculum for Wales, especially Forces and energy, which covers the motion of planets and stars.
Use the England stages above as a guide to age. A full Welsh mapping is on our list.
At KS1 and KS2 they fit The World Around Us. At KS3 and GCSE, use the England stages above as a guide.
A full Northern Ireland mapping is on our list.
Plain-language guides for teachers who want the background before the lesson.
These are our suggestions for where each tool fits. Always preview a page before using it with a class: some tools show ads, these school pages do not.
Orby's Space Academy uses US spelling.
Know a better fit for your year group, or a topic we have missed? Tell us and we will add it.
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Orbital Radar. (2026, November 2). Space for Schools: United Kingdom. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/uk
“Space for Schools: United Kingdom.” Orbital Radar, 2 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/uk. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) Space for Schools: United Kingdom. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/uk (Accessed: 2 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “Space for Schools: United Kingdom.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/uk.
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Live figures change, so keep the date you accessed the page. How to cite Orbital Radar