Las Cruces, New Mexico—the place for space and official city of Spaceport America—will host the Las Cruces Space Festival April 7–10. With a mission of “Making Space for Everyone,” the 2022 festival will feature four days of free space-related events in Las Cruces and at Spaceport America.

Las Cruces and southern New Mexico has played a huge role in the history of space exploration and research. In addition to celebrating this history, the Las Cruces Space Festival will offer a variety of events from art to stargazing, movies, education and more.

Events will kick off on Thursday, April 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the Mesilla Valley Mall with a career fair to connect people with aerospace career and education opportunities. On Friday, April 8, look to the skies for a special Celestron sponsored stargazing event.

From 9:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 9, events will take place on the Plaza de Las Cruces, including hands-on and interactive space science activities. Additionally, Saturday will feature two missions to Mars at the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., as well as a space trivia competition and free sci-fi movies at the Rio Grande Theater.

On Sunday, April 10, explore the world’s first commercial built spaceport—Spaceport America—with an open house from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the hangar, as well as a fly-in, mini rocket launches and interactive STEM activities. To attend the Spaceport America Open House, visitors must register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spaceport-america-open-house-tickets-261240014917.

Movies will be held nightly at the Rio Grande Theater at 7:00 p.m. Showings will include Gravity on April 7, Interstellar on April 8, Space Camp on April 9 (matinee showing at 1:00 p.m.), and 2001: A Space Odyssey on April 9.

Throughout the festival, a local art exhibit titled “Across Space” will be on display at the Mesilla Valley Mall, and there will be a festival-long raffle for a StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ telescope.

For more information and event updates, visit www.lcspacefestival.com.