Jump to:The New York Times has offered this calendar to readers since 2017. It’s a collection of newsworthy events in spaceflight and astronomy curated by the paper’s journalists.
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The setting sun, at perihelion, in Ankara, Turkey, on Jan. 4, 2022.
Credit…Cagla Gurdogan/Reuters
Even as the Northern Hemisphere experiences winter’s chill, our planet on Wednesday will be at perihelion, the closest it gets to the sun during its elliptical orbit. Learn more about planetary orbits and the search for life around the galaxy.
The Quadrantids seen above northern Spain in January 2022.
Credit…Pedro Puente Hoyos/EPA, via Shutterstock
Active from Dec. 28, 2023 to Jan. 12. Peak night: Jan. 3 to 4.
The Quadrantids, which the International Meteor Organization has forecast to be one of the strongest meteor showers this year, are also one of the few caused by debris from an asteroid. Best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, the shower is one of the toughest to catch.
The Quadrantids have one of the shortest peak periods, lasting only six hours. And the time of year might mean cloudy skies and frigid temperatures. The moon will be over half full, which may also make meteors harder to spot.
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket will carry the Peregrine lunar lander to the moon.
Credit…United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is preparing for the first flight of Vulcan, its new rocket. The rocket uses engines built by Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. It will carry Peregrine, a robotic lander built by Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, on a NASA-sponsored mission near the Ocean of Storms on the moon’s near side. If the mission launches on time, it would reach the lunar surface in late February, aiming to be the first privately built moon lander to do so.
Axiom Space’s Ax-2 private astronaut mission docked with the International Space Station in May 2023.
Credit…NASA
Visits to the International Space Station are valuable, and would-be astronauts and their countries can wait a long time for the opportunity. In addition to wealthy adventurers, Axiom Space is making it possible for people to make the trip from countries that have seldom or never had astronauts aboard the orbital outpost. The three on the Ax-3 flight are: Alper Gezeravcı, who will be the first Turkish astronaut; Marcus Wandt, a European Space Agency astronaut from Sweden; and Walter Villadei, an Italian Air Force pilot who previously flew to the edge of space on a Virgin Galactic rocket plane.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, at the satellite fairing assembly building at the Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan.
Credit…Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Japanese space agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon launched on a long lunar journey in September. The 420-pound spacecraft will attempt to set down after months in deep space, testing sophisticated lunar landing techniques for future space missions. It would be Japan’s first lunar landing, making it the fifth country to reach the moon.
Intuitive Machines’s Nova-C lunar lander at the company’s facility in Houston in February 2023.
Credit…Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times
Intuitive Machines, a Houston company, may launch its IM-1 mission, using its Nova-C spacecraft to carry payloads to the lunar South Pole region, potentially making it the second spacecraft to land there. Like Astrobotic, which is scheduled to launch in January, its mission is sponsored by NASA and is aiming to be the first privately built moon lander to successfully reach the lunar surface.
The H3 rocket lifting off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan in March 2023.
Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, will be the flagship vehicle of Japan’s space program. Its first flight in March 2023 failed to reach orbit, resulting in the loss of an Earth imaging satellite. It could attempt to fly again as soon as Feb. 15, this time carrying a test payload and a pair of small satellites.
Work on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite inside a spacecraft assembly facility clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in February 2023.
Credit…Mario Tama/Getty Images
The NASA-ISRO SAR Mission, or NISAR, is a collaborative project between the American and Indian space agencies. Launching from an Indian rocket, the spacecraft will carry a variety of sensors, some provided by NASA, to study shifts in Earth’s land- and ice-covered surfaces using synthetic aperture radar. NASA says the launch will occur in early 2024, and ISRO has suggested it will be within the first quarter of the year. We will provide a more precise launch date for this mission when NASA and ISRO announce one.
Earth at the vernal equinox.
Credit…Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory
The vernal equinox is one of two points in Earth’s orbit where the sun creates equal periods of daytime and nighttime across the globe. Many people mark it as the first day of the spring. See what it looks like from space.
A penumbral eclipse over Srinagar, India, in May 2023.
Credit…Mukhtar Khan/Associated Press
A lunar eclipse happens when the moon passes through the shadow Earth makes when it gets in the way of the sun. During a penumbral eclipse, the moon crosses through the outer part of this shadow, known as the penumbra.
This event can be observed anywhere on the night side of Earth, in this case much of the Americas and parts of East Asia. But only careful observers will really be able to see the eclipse — because the moon doesn’t travel through the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, so the lunar surface only slightly dims in brightness.
From left, the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission: Jared Isaacman, mission commander; Anna Menon, mission specialist and medical officer; Sarah Gillis, mission specialist; and Scott Poteet, mission pilot.
Credit…John Kraus/Polaris Program, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In 2021, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder…