Archive
Ephemeris: 01/22/2026 – Artemis II launch window opens up in 15 days
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
12/26/2014 – Ephemeris – Tragedies and triumphs of 2014
Ephemeris for Friday, December 26th. The sun will rise at 8:18. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:08. The moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:02 this evening.
2014 was a year of personal tragedy and also tragedy and triumph in space. The Space tragedies came in October with the destruction and loss of Orbital Science’s third supply mission to the International Space Station when the their Antares rocket blew up right after launch. A few days later Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo disintegrated on a test flight killing a pilot. In the Triumph department the European Space Agency’s Rosetta caught up and orbited its comet 67P, for short, in August and bounced down its lander Philae in November. It wasn’t supposed to bounce, but stick the landing. Bruised and battered Philae delivered its science before its batteries died. And this month an unmanned Orion capsule made its maiden voyage into space.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explodes seconds after liftoff on October 28, 2014. Credit NASA.
SpaceShipTwo disintegrates October 31, 2014 killing a pilot. Credit USA Today.
After a second bounce on the Comet 67P the Philae lander ended up sideways apparently on the base of a cliff. Researchers were able to get data from just about all the instruments before the battery discharged. The team hopes and the comet gets closer to the sun and the sun angle changes they can revive Philae. Credit: ESA.
Screen capture of Delta IV Heavy rocket liftoff carrying the Orion test article into orbit on December 4, 2014. Credit .NASA via BBC
Ride back to the earth with Orion via a camera mounted in a window. The window is facing aft as the capsule re-enters the atmosphere heat shield first at 20,000 miles per hour. You’ll experience everything except the G forces. It comes with appropriate spacey music. It’s as close as I’ll ever get to ride in one of these things.
12/08/2014 – Ephemeris – Last week was a good week in space
Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 9th. The sun will rise at 8:07. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 54 minutes, setting at 5:02, officially the earliest sunset of the year. The moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:25 this evening.
Last month we had two space tragedies, the explosion of a Antares rocket on its way to resupply the International Space Station and the death of a pilot of SpaceShipTwo on a test flight. This past week good news, Tuesday (Wednesday Japan time) the launch in Japan of the Hyabusa 2 spacecraft to bring back samples of an asteroid. And on Friday the first test flight of an Orion Crew Module to test, mainly its heat shield, and if it could withstand the heat of reentry coming back from deep space. It will be nearly 4 more years before the Space Launch System, the rocket to be used with the Orion module, will be ready to be launched. If you’re wondering about the slow pace, well NASA doesn’t have the budget it did back in the 1960s.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The launch of Hyabusa 2. Credit JAXA.
Artists rendition of Hyabusa 2 taking a sample from the asteroid. Credit: JAXA.
Orion Crew module being launched by a Delta 4 Heavy rocket. Credit: NASA.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 