China set to launch high-stakes mission to Moon’s ‘hidden’ side
Beijing, China Reuters China will send a robotic spacecraft in coming days on a round trip to the Moon’s far side in the first of three technically demanding missions that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole. Since the first Chang’e mission in 2007, […]
Helpdesk: Looking to photograph a solar eclipse with your smartphone? Try these features and think about creative angles
DOUGLAS GOODWIN – in an article first published on The Conversation – provides some tips…
White House directs NASA to create time standard for the Moon
Washington DC, US Reuters The White House on Tuesday directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the Moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies. The head of the White House Office of Science […]
SpaceX Starship disintegrates after completing most of third test flight
Boca Chica, Texas Reuters SpaceX’s Starship rocket, designed to eventually send astronauts to the moon and beyond, completed nearly an entire test flight through space on its third try on Thursday, getting farther than ever before, but disintegrated on its return to Earth. During a webcast of the flight, SpaceX commentators said mission control lost […]
Essay: US Moon landing marks new active phase of lunar science, with commercial launches of landers that will study solar wind and peer into the universe’s dark ages
JACK BURNS, professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, looks at how the latest Moon landing – the first by the US since the Apollo missions – is being used to advance scientific study…
Moon lander Odysseus tipped sideways on lunar surface but “alive and well”
Reuters The Moon lander dubbed Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the US since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday. Houston-based Intuitive Machines also revealed that human […]
US achieves first Moon landing in half century with private spacecraft
Updated: 5:30pm (AEDT) Reuters A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the Moon’s south pole on Thursday, the first US touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the […]
Private US Moon lander launched half century after last Apollo lunar mission
Cape Canaveral, Florida Reuters A Moon lander built by Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines was launched from Florida early on Thursday on a mission to conduct the first US lunar touchdown in more than a half century and the first by a privately owned spacecraft. The company’s Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, lifted off shortly after […]
Know It All: Moon landings
Japan recently became the fifth country to land a craft successfully on the Moon. DAVID ADAMS looks at some facts and figures about that and previous landings…
Essay: Japan is now the fifth country to land on the Moon – the technology used will lend itself to future lunar missions
International affairs scholar MARIEL BOROWTIZ, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, looks, in an article first published on The Conversation, at Japan’s achievement…