March 20: March Equinox - This is also the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere.
June 22:June Solstice - This is the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.
September 23: September Equinox - This is also the first day of fall (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere.
December 22: December Solstice - This is the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.
Eclipses
Two solar and two lunar eclipses take place in 2015 as follows.
July: The ESA and NASA plan to launch the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, a gravity research probe and technology testbed.
July 14 – NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is expected to fly by Pluto and Charon and explore the area for five months, until the distance becomes too great. The space probe will then continue farther into the Kuiper belt and perform another flyby on suitable KBO during New Horizons' Kuiper-belt mission.[2] It is the first flyby of Pluto and Charon & 2nd visit to a dwarf planet.
November: Japanese space probe Akatsuki, formerly known as the Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) and Planet-C, 2nd flyby of Venus and 2nd attempt at Venus Orbit insertion.
July 14 – NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto and Charon, exploring the area for five months until the distance became too great. New Horizons is now in the Kuiper belt and will eventually leave the Solar System. First flyby of Pluto and Charon & 2nd visit to a dwarf planet.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Cubesats are smaller. Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
