Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine to prep for NASA moon launch

Artemis 2 astronauts enter quarantine to prep for NASA moon launch

Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY

Mon, January 26, 2026 at 1:29 PM UTC

4 min read

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The four astronauts who will soon become the first humans in more than half a century to fly on a lunar mission have begun the quarantine process – a crucial sign that NASA believes a launch could be imminent.

Sequestering themselves away from others for the next several days ensures that the three Americans and one Canadian selected for a mission known as Artemis 2 are at low risk of becoming sick and jeopardizing the mission. The crew members have entered quarantine in Texas as NASA makes final preparations in Florida to ready the towering rocket that will get the mission off the ground as early as February.

Artemis 2 is the second moon mission under NASA's multibillion-dollar lunar program, and the first with humans since the vaunted Apollo era came to an end in 1972. While no lunar landing is in store for the mission, the astronauts selected for Artemis 2 will help pave the way for Americans to return to the moon under a follow-up mission in the years ahead.

Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander captures its shadow on the moon's surface after completing a successful landing March 2 near a volcanic feature on the moon called Mons Latreille. The vehicle became the first of two landers manufactured by a U.S. company to reach the moon is 2025 in crucial missions to lay the groundwork for NASA to return humans to the lunar surface in the years ahead.

Athena, the lunar lander on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission, captured this image of the moon's surface with Earth seen in the distance ahead of a March 6 landing attempt. While the lander was the second U.S. vehicle to reach the moon within a week, it ultimately landed on its side, which hindered much of its mission.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams is helped out of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft March 18 following a return to Earth after a nine-month stay at the International Space Station. She and NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore crewed the Boeing Starliner, which had launched in June 2024 on a failed test flight that was meant to return them to Earth a few days later.

Butch Wilmore reacts after he and Suni Williams and two other astronauts splashed down March 18 in a Crew Dragon space capsule following their return to earth from the International Space Station off the coast of Florida. The astronauts' extended stay at the orbital outpost dominated the news cycle for months.

A SpaceX support team member is seen airborne while working to lift the SpaceX Dragon capsule that returned the Starliner astronauts and two others onto a recovery vehicle following its landing off the coast of Florida.

This picture shows the crew of a privately-funded mission known as Fram2, from left to right, mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips, mission commander Chun Wang, pilot Rabea Rogge and vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen on March 19, 2025 in Hawthorne, California. Launched March 31 from Florida using a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the mission became t first ever human spaceflight over the Earth's polar regions.

Pop musician Katy Perry emerges April 14 from Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule in West Texas following a brief flight to the edge of space. Perry was part of an all-women crew that also included broadcast journalist Gayle King that took the ride from Blue Origin's facility called Launch Site One. The high-profile launch attracted plenty of headlines and even drew some backlash from those who viewed the mission as a wasteful publicity stunt.

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket carrying astronauts Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Kerianne Flynn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sanchez lifts off April 14 from Launch Site One near Van Horn, Texas. Blue Origin has since launched five more human spaceflights on the New Shepard in 2025.

This photo depicts a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the latest batch of Amazon's broadband satellites on Dec. 16 to low-Earth orbit after launching from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Formerly called Project Kuiper, the venture has since been renamed Amazon Leo. Since its debut April launch, Amazon Leo has deployed 180 of 3,000 satellites planned for its first constellation, which could challenge SpaceX's Starlink.

A group of Blue Origin employees with their friends and families gather on the beach in Cape Canaveral for the launch of Blue Origin's second New Glenn rocket in 2025. Following its January debut, the rocket launched for the second time Nov. 13 from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft on their trek to Mars.

Darkness falls Nov. 9 as a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is prepped for its second-ever launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Blue Origin is developing the towering rocket for heavy-lift missions that could see Jeff Bezos' company compete with Elon Musk and SpaceX.

The SpaceX Starship spacecraft sits Oct. 12, 2025 atop the Super Heavy booster before sunrise as preparations continue for its 11th test flight from the company's complex in Starbase, Texas.

A SpaceX Super Heavy booster carrying the Starship spacecraft lifts off Oct. 13, 2025, on its 11th ever test flight at the company's launch pad in Starbase, Texas. The launch was Starship's fifth of 2025, and second consecutive successful test flight following a year that was early on marked by explosive failures. SpaceX is developing the rocket for future missions that would help NASA astronauts land on the moon and also potentially transport the first humans to Mars.

2025 spaceflight in photos. See images of Blue Origin, SpaceX missions

Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander captures its shadow on the moon's surface after completing a successful landing March 2 near a volcanic feature on the moon called Mons Latreille. The vehicle became the first of two landers manufactured by a U.S. company to reach the moon is 2025 in crucial missions to lay the groundwork for NASA to return humans to the lunar surface in the years ahead.

Here's everything to know about when the astronauts entered quarantine, and what's next as NASA prepares for the Artemis 2 rocket launch.

Spaceflight in 2026: 6 spaceflights in year ahead, from NASA moon missions to SpaceX Starship

Who will be on the Artemis 2 mission? Astronauts enter quarantine

The Artemis II crew poses in front of an Orion simulator Jan. 23, 2026 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The crew of Artemis 2 – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen – all entered quarantine Friday, Jan. 23, according to NASA.

Quarantining is protocol before any crewed spaceflight to ensure astronauts aren't exposed to any illnesses that could delay an upcoming mission.

The Artemis 2 astronauts have begun the quarantine period at the Johnson Space Center in Houston before they fly to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida about six days ahead of launch – provided that all prelaunch testing goes to plan.

The astronauts will have to avoid public places, but they are by no means isolated. Friends, family and colleagues who observe certain guidelines to avoid contracting and spreading illnesses are still able to visit them.

Plenty of training and preparation also awaits the Artemis 2 astronauts in the days ahead, including mission simulations and medical checkouts.

When is the Artemis 2 rocket launch date?

The Space Launch System (SLS) is due to launch as early as Feb. 6 and as late as April 6 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, propelling the Orion capsule carrying the crew of Artemis 2 toward the moon.

While NASA has not settled on an official launch date, "beginning quarantine now preserves flexibility as teams work toward potential opportunities in the February launch period," the agency said in a Jan. 23 blog post.

NASA prepares for wet dress rehearsal for Space Launch System rocket

A banner covered with the signatures of NASA employees and contractors is seen on the perimeter fence of Launch Complex 39B after NASA’s Artemis 2 Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft were rolled out to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Settling on an official launch date also won't occur until NASA conducts what's known as a wet dress rehearsal and a mission team completes a flight readiness review.

The prelaunch test, which could take place as early as Feb. 2, involves conducting a mock launch countdown and fueling the rocket with 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants that are later drained.

Ahead of the test, ground teams continue to analyze and prepare for launch both the Orion capsule and the towering Space Launch System, both of which were stacked and rolled out Jan. 17 to the launch pad. In California, teams are also finalizing plans to recover the astronauts in the Pacific Ocean, where they will make a water landing in the Orion capsule upon completion of the mission, according to NASA.

Artemis 2 won't land on the moon, but will circle it

The astronauts won't be making a lunar landing, but will rather circle the moon on a 10-day trip to test systems and hardware for future expeditions to the surface. The Orion capsule the crew will pilot – built by Lockheed Martin – is due to travel about 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the moon, taking its passengers the farthest humans have ever ventured in space before returning to Earth.

The mission would come more than three years after Artemis 1 launched Nov. 16, 2022, from the Kennedy Space Center, sending the Orion capsule on a moon-orbiting mission without a crew in the first test of the vehicle.

A moon landing would then take place during Artemis 3, which President Donald Trump has signaled he wants to see happen before the end of his second term.

Why is NASA interested in the moon? What to know about Artemis

NASA's Artemis program is the agency's ambitious campaign to return Americans to the surface of the moon for the first time since the Apollo era came to an end in 1972.

In the years ahead, NASA's Artemis program aims to launch a series of crewed missions to establish a continuous human presence on the moon with a lunar settlement on the south pole. That's where water ice thought to be abundant in the region could be extracted and used for drinking, breathing and as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.

From there, the lunar settlement would serve as a base of operations to make the first crewed space missions to Mars possible.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astronauts enter quarantine ahead of NASA's Artemis rocket launch

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