Space Crossword Puzzle Printable

Print a criss-cross space crossword of short words such as Mars and Orbit, with its answer key.

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Space Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

This grid is wider than a phone screen, so it scrolls sideways. It prints whole.

Tap a square, and its clue shows here.

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Word bank

  • Axis
  • Ceres
  • Eris
  • Juno
  • Lunar
  • Pilot
  • Rigel
  • Umbra

Type in a square and the next one takes over. Tap the same square again, or press Space, to switch between Across and Down. Arrow keys move around the grid, Enter goes to the next clue, and a clue takes you to its squares.

Print gives 2 pages on Letter or A4: the puzzle with its clues, then the answer key. The squares print 10 mm wide. For a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print window.

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Answer key: Space Crossword

1C2ERESR3RIGE4LSU5JN6A7UMBRAXNR8PILOTS

Across 1 CERES · 3 RIGEL · 7 UMBRA · 8 PILOT

Down 2 ERIS · 4 LUNAR · 5 JUNO · 6 AXIS

Next step Find space words in a word searchPrint the science crossword

All 147 clues

Show all clues and answers

Planets and Moons 30

  • Asteroid Lump of rock or metal left over from the making of the planets
  • Axis Tilted line that a planet turns around once a day
  • Callisto Heavily cratered moon, outermost of the four found by Galileo
  • Ceres Dwarf planet that is the largest object in the main belt of space rocks
  • Charon Moon half as wide as the dwarf planet it circles
  • Comet Icy visitor with a glowing head and a long tail, such as Halley's
  • Crater Round scar on the moon made by a crashing space rock
  • Deimos Tiny outer moon of the red planet, named for the Greek word for dread
  • Earth Planet with one moon, where a day lasts 24 hours
  • Enceladus Small icy moon that sprays geysers of water into space
  • Eris Far-off dwarf planet whose discovery in 2005 led to a new definition of planet
  • Europa Icy moon of the largest planet, with an ocean under its shell
  • Ganymede Largest moon of any planet
  • Gas giant Huge planet made mostly of the two lightest gases
  • Jupiter Giant planet more massive than all the others put together
  • Kuiper ___ belt: far zone of small icy worlds, named for a Dutch-born scientist
  • Lunar Kind of month counted from one new moon to the next
  • Mars The red planet, home of the tallest volcano known on any planet
  • Mercury Planet whose year lasts only 88 days
  • Meteor The streak called a shooting star
  • Neptune Farthest planet from the sun, deep blue and windy
  • Orbit Curved track that a planet follows; one full lap is its year
  • Phobos Lumpy inner moon that races around the red planet three times a day
  • Pluto Dwarf planet with a heart-shaped plain, reached by a spacecraft in 2015
  • Rings What all four giant planets wear, though only one set is easy to see
  • Saturn Sixth planet from the sun, a pale yellow ball of gas
  • Titan Haze-covered moon bigger than the smallest planet
  • Triton Largest moon of the farthest planet, circling it backward
  • Uranus Ice giant that rolls around the sun tipped on its side
  • Venus Second planet, the brightest point in the evening sky after the moon

Stars and Galaxies 32

  • Andromeda Great spiral so far off that its light takes 2.5 million years to arrive
  • Betelgeuse Reddish star so large that, in the sun's place, it would swallow the inner planets
  • Big Bang Two-word name for the birth of space and time
  • Binary ___ star: two suns circling each other
  • Black hole Region whose pull is so strong that not even light escapes
  • Cluster Group of stars born together
  • Corona Faint outer atmosphere of the sun, far hotter than its surface
  • Exoplanet Planet of another sun; thousands have been found since the 1990s
  • Flare Sudden bright outburst on the sun
  • Fusion Process deep in a star that joins light atoms and releases energy
  • Galaxy Vast island of billions of stars
  • Helium Second-lightest element, made in the cores of stars
  • Hydrogen Element number one, about three-quarters of all ordinary matter
  • Light-year Distance a sunbeam covers in twelve months, almost six trillion miles
  • Magnitude Number for a star's brightness; lower means brighter
  • Milky Way Our home among the stars, seen as a pale band across a dark sky
  • Nebula Glowing cloud of gas and dust where stars are born
  • Neutron ___ star: city-sized, super-dense core left by an explosion
  • Polaris Star that barely moves all night, almost straight above the North Pole
  • Proxima ___ Centauri: nearest star to the sun
  • Pulsar Collapsed star whose radio beat ticks as regularly as a clock
  • Quasar Brilliant, very distant object whose name is short for quasi-stellar
  • Red giant Swollen, cooling star late in its life
  • Rigel Blue-white star at the Hunter's foot
  • Sirius Dazzling white star of Canis Major, the brightest at night
  • Solar Word before system, wind or panel
  • Spectrum Rainbow of a star's light, read like a fingerprint
  • Sunspot Cooler, darker patch on the sun's face
  • Supernova A star's final blast, which can outshine billions of suns for weeks
  • Universe All the galaxies, and all the space between them
  • Vega Bright blue-white star of the Summer Triangle
  • White dwarf Small, hot, dim remains of a star like ours

Spacecraft and Missions 30

  • Airlock Small chamber between a cabin and the vacuum outside
  • Apollo Program whose eleventh flight put the first people on the moon
  • Booster Strap-on engine that falls away after launch
  • Capsule Cone-shaped cabin that brings a crew home
  • Cassini Craft that circled the ringed planet from 2004 to 2017
  • Countdown Backward count that ends in "zero" and a roar of engines
  • Curiosity Car-sized wheeled robot that landed on the red planet in 2012
  • Docking Joining two craft together in flight
  • Heat shield Layer that protects a returning cabin from burning up
  • Hubble Famous eye above the clouds since 1990, source of deep-field pictures
  • Juno Craft that began circling the largest planet in 2016
  • Lander Craft built to touch down softly
  • Launchpad Platform that a vehicle rises from
  • Liftoff Moment the engines push a vehicle off the ground
  • Payload What a launch vehicle carries up: instruments, supplies or passengers
  • Pioneer Name shared by early American craft; number 10 was first to fly past the largest planet
  • Probe Robot craft sent to study another world
  • Reentry Fiery return through the air
  • Rocket Engine-driven vehicle that lifts off on a column of flame
  • Rover Wheeled robot that drives across another world
  • Satellite Machine that circles our planet to relay signals or take pictures
  • Shuttle Winged, reusable American spacecraft that flew from 1981 to 2011
  • Skylab First American laboratory in space, launched in 1973
  • Soyuz Russian craft that has carried crews since the 1960s
  • Spacesuit What a crew member wears outside
  • Spacewalk Trip outside a craft, floating on a tether
  • Sputnik First human-made object to circle our planet, launched in 1957
  • Station Laboratory circling overhead where crews live for months
  • Thruster Small engine for steering in space
  • Voyager Either of two craft launched in 1977, now beyond the planets

Space Jobs 25

  • Analyst Person who sifts through numbers sent back by an instrument
  • Astronaut American word for a space traveler; it means star sailor
  • Astronomer Person whose night shift is spent measuring the light of far-off suns
  • Biologist Scientist of living things, who looks for signs of life on other worlds
  • Centrifuge Spinning arm that lets a trainee feel heavy forces
  • Checklist Step-by-step list that a crew reads through before each task
  • Chemist Scientist who works out what a sample of rock or gas is made of
  • Commander Crew member with the final say on board
  • Controller Flight ___: person at a console who watches a flight from the ground
  • Cosmologist Scientist who studies how everything began and how it is expanding
  • Cosmonaut Title of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space
  • Director Flight ___: person with final authority in the control room
  • Engineer Designer of a craft's structure, engines or wiring
  • Experiment Test carried out in a floating laboratory
  • Geologist Rock scientist; one walked on the moon in 1972
  • Mapmaker Person who charts the surface of another world
  • Navigator Person who works out where a craft is and where to steer it
  • Observatory Mountaintop building with a dome that opens at night
  • Physicist Expert in forces and motion who can work out a flight path
  • Pilot Crew member who flies the craft
  • Planetarium Round room with reclining seats where a projector fills the ceiling with stars
  • Programmer Writer of the code that guides a craft
  • Roboticist Builder of machines that drive, grip and explore by themselves
  • Simulator Machine that lets a crew practice a flight on the ground
  • Technician Hands-on worker who assembles and tests hardware in a clean room

Sky-Watching Words 30

  • Asterism Star pattern that is not an official constellation, such as a famous ladle
  • Aurora Northern or southern lights
  • Cassiopeia W-shaped constellation named for a queen
  • Crescent Thin, curved sliver of a lit moon
  • Cygnus The Swan, also called the Northern Cross
  • Dipper Big ___: seven bright stars shaped like a ladle
  • Eclipse Rare daytime darkness that sends watchers reaching for special glasses
  • Ecliptic Path the sun seems to follow across the sky in a year
  • Equinox March or September day when daylight and darkness are almost the same length
  • Eyepiece Small lens unit that an observer looks into
  • Gibbous More than half lit but not yet full
  • Gravity What makes a dropped ball fall and a moon keep to its path
  • Horizon Far edge of the view, where a rising star first appears
  • Lyra Little constellation of the harp that crosses overhead on summer nights
  • Orion The Hunter: winter constellation with three stars in a belt
  • Perseids Shooting-star shower that peaks each year in mid-August
  • Phase Each shape the moon shows in a month
  • Planisphere Wheel-shaped star chart that turns to match the date
  • Pleiades Tight knot of blue stars called the Seven Sisters
  • Solstice First day of summer or of winter on the calendar
  • Stargazer Backyard watcher of the night sky
  • Telescope Tube of lenses or mirrors that gathers faint light
  • Totality Minutes when the moon covers the sun completely
  • Transit Passage of a small body across the face of a larger one
  • Twilight Dim blue hour between sundown and full dark
  • Umbra Darkest central part of a shadow
  • Waning Shrinking, as the lit part of the moon does after full
  • Waxing Growing, as the lit part of the moon does after new
  • Zenith Point straight overhead
  • Zodiac Belt of star patterns, Aries among them, that lies along the sun's path

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for upper elementary and middle school classes: planets and moons, stars and galaxies, spacecraft and missions, space jobs, and sky-watching words. Every answer is an entry in Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org), and each fact about a planet, a star or a mission was checked against English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) in October 2026. Pluto, Ceres and Eris are clued as dwarf planets. No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This space crossword puzzle is a printable vocabulary crossword for an astronomy unit or for earth and space science: planets and moons, stars and galaxies, spacecraft, space jobs and sky-watching words.

Read the full guide

Five sets and a short one

Short Space Words keeps answers to 5 letters or fewer: Mars, Orbit, Comet, Rover. Planets and Moons has all eight planets, plus Ganymede, Enceladus and Kuiper. Stars and Galaxies has Supernova, Betelgeuse and Light-year. Spacecraft and Missions has Voyager, Sputnik and Spacewalk. Space Jobs has Astronomer, Cosmonaut and Roboticist. Sky-Watching Words has Gibbous, Zenith and Perseids.

A solar system crossword in one set

For free printable solar system crossword puzzles, choose Planets and Moons under Clue set: each new puzzle draws from the planets, their moons, dwarf planets and small bodies.

Questions and answers

Is there a planets crossword puzzle, printable alone?

Yes. Planets and Moons holds Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune as answers. Each planet clue gives a fact, such as the one with an 88-day year or the one tipped on its side.

Are these free printable space crosswords right for fifth grade?

Yes, in our judgment, which is not a published standard: the themed sets suit about grades 4 to 8, and Short Space Words, with its word bank, suits grades 3 and 4.

Why is Pluto in the puzzle?

Pluto is an answer, clued as a dwarf planet, which is how the International Astronomical Union has classed it since 2006. Ceres and Eris are clued the same way.

Does the space crossword print with answers?

Yes. The key prints last, after the puzzle, and the line beside Print gives the page count.

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