Overview

• Agency officials say liftoff could be as soon as February 5, 2026, with April set as the latest in the launch window.
• The roughly 10-day mission will loop around the Moon without a landing to validate systems and assess deep-space health effects on the crew.
• The four-person team consists of Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
• NASA describes safety as its absolute priority and has modified Orion’s reentry trajectory after an audit raised concerns tied to heat-shield damage on the 2022 test flight.
• A public campaign to send names aboard Orion on a microSD card has topped 500,000 sign-ups, with a submission deadline of January 21.