Home > Artemis Program, Ephemeris Program, Space Flight > Ephemeris: 01/22/2026 – Artemis II launch window opens up in 15 days

Ephemeris: 01/22/2026 – Artemis II launch window opens up in 15 days

January 22, 2026

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, January 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 26 minutes, setting at 5:37, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:10. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:04 this evening.

The launch window for the first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon opens up in a bit more than two weeks. It is made-up of 3 approximately 2 week windows containing four or five possible launch dates that extend to April. This mission is a mission to simply loop around the Moon and come back. It is different from the Apollo 8 mission, that actually orbited the Moon 10 times before returning to the Earth. The four astronauts will become the farthest members of humanity to venture from the Earth. One has hoped that NASA has solved the hydrogen leak problem that plagued the Artemis 1 mission a bit more than a year ago. Hydrogen is a small molecule that can leak through just about anything.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EST, UT – 5 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

Artemis 2 planned a trajectory out around the Moon and back.
Artemis 2 planned a trajectory out around the Moon and back. Click or tap on the image for a larger more readable size.Credit: NASA.
Apollo 8 (AS-503) Lunar Mission Sequence Orbital Mission.
Apollo 8 (AS-503) Lunar Mission Sequence Orbital Mission. Credit: NASA.
Earth-Moon distance and sizes to scale.
Earth-Moon distance and sizes to scale. The white blob in the center right is supposed to be a light pulse. Click or tap on the image for a larger view. Credit: NASA.
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