Moon Mission

Home News Science & Astronomy Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) seen traversing the sky on Feb. 12 by the Japanese Equuleus cubesat that orbits the moon. (Image credit: Equuleus project team) Japan's cubesat EQUULEUS, which hitched a ride to the moon aboard NASA's Artemis 1 mission in November last year, took…

Home News Spaceflight NASA fired up an engine Wednesday (Feb. 8) to boost human moon missions. The RS-25 engine, a veteran of the space shuttle program, has a new design for the NASA's Artemis program. Starting with Artemis 5 late in the 2020s or so, the modified engines will fly…

Home News Spaceflight A portion of the far side of the Moon looms large just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this image taken on the sixth day of the Artemis 1 mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays. (Image credit: NASA) NASA will soon…

This artist’s concept shows the briefcase-sized Lunar Flashlight spacecraft using its near-infrared lasers to shine light into shaded polar regions on the Moon to look for water ice. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The mission is characterizing its new “green” propulsion system and developing a modified plan for the briefcase-size satellite’s journey to…

Home News Spaceflight Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect the interior of NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule. Photo released Jan. 10, 2023. (Image credit: NASA) NASA has started unpacking the Orion spacecraft after its epic moon mission. Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida have…

NASA's Capstone mission will test a unique, unprecedented orbit around the moon for the U.S. space agency's Artemis program. Credit: NASA As power drained from its solar limbs, the tired spaceship went quiet, spinning out of control and into exhaustion. Reluctantly, engineers sounded the alarm for the moonbound CAPSTONE mission.…

Illustration of the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm), which will significantly improve the utility of robotic arms for lunar landers. Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech COLDArm, the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm, will significantly improve the utility of robotic arms for lunar landers. The arm will enable manipulation capabilities in very…

Home News Spaceflight Fifty years ago, Apollo 17’s command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on December 19, 1972 with Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ron Evans landing safely back home on Earth after a 12-day voyage to our lone satellite.  It was a record breaking mission, involving the…

        | Published: Friday, December 16, 2022, 10:59 After a 25-day journey, NASA’s Orion capsule returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, making the agency’s Artemis I moon mission a success. The spacecraft reached past the Moon and back and will carry astronauts in…

Home News Science & Astronomy A view of Earth from NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft as it approached splashdown time on Dec. 11, 2022. (Image credit: NASA) NASA will look back on 2022 very fondly indeed. The space agency had a lot to celebrate this year, from the deployment and…