Your wait for these space events is about to pay off

In 2026, there will be journeys to the moon and Mars, new visions of the cosmos and a solar eclipse that might be worth travelling for

- Katrina Miller and Michael Roston

One of Mars' moons. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which have long fascinated scientists.

(NASA/JPL via The New York Times)

The thing about space is that you have to be patient. The universe does not bend to earthly time scales, and events are governed by the unalterable realities of physics and engineering. They will happen when they are good and ready.

Sometimes we have to wait much longer than expected for events in our solar system, and beyond. Especially in spaceflight, you might hear about events, learn they are postponed and then eventually hear about them again. In 2026, there is some hope that your patience will be rewarded.

Nasa is sending astronauts back towards the moon. No, for real this time. It has been more than 50 years since humans exited low-Earth orbit and travelled around the moon. In the time since, space agencies have built space shuttles and space stations, but their crews have remained within our planet's close embrace.

Early in 2026, astronauts from Nasa and the Canadian Space Agency will again travel around the moon and back. The crew of four is made up of Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch. Glover will be the first Black person to go to the moon, and Koch the first woman. Hansen will be the first Canadian, and the first non-American, to ever do that.

The 10-day journey will not greatly differ from that of Apollo 8, the first time NASA astronauts looped around the moon, in December 1968. But if the mission gets off the ground at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, it will prove that the Orion capsule, a key vehicle in Nasa's lunar infrastructure, is a safe ride for astronauts. It could happen as soon as February.

Landing Nasa astronauts on the moon is another story entirely.