Moon

NASA’s Artemis II mission has launched, sending four astronauts around the Moon for the first time since 1972. Here’s what makes this mission historic, what went wrong after liftoff

Now more than halfway to the moon, the Artemis II astronauts were toasted by Canada on Saturday as they prepared for their historic lunar fly-around to push deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts. The three Americans and one Canadian will reach their destination Monday, photographing the mysterious lunar far side as they zoom around. It's the first moonbound crew in more than 53 years, picking up where NASA's Apollo programme left off. Artemis II was poised to set a distance record for humans, traveling more than 252,000 miles (400,000 kilometres) from Earth before hanging a U-turn behind the moon and heading home without stopping or entering lunar orbit. The record is currently held by Apollo 13. The Canadian Space Agency celebrated the country's role in the mission, speaking from Quebec with astronaut Jeremy Hansen as he headed toward his lunar rendezvous. Hansen is the first non-US citizen to fly to the moon. "Today he is making history for Canada," said Canadian Spac

The Apollo program set a precedent that Nasa should strive to have a human spaceflight initiative that drives US space exploration forward

For all its benign demeanour, which has inspired many a song, the Moon isn't exactly welcoming. Approaching it demands precision. Landing on it even more so

On Mar 3, 2026, there will be a rare total lunar eclipse or the Blood Moon, which will be partially visible in many regions of India. Here is how to witness this celestial spectacle

The first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972 will send four astronauts around the Moon, testing systems critical for future lunar landings

Time does not pass at the same speed on Earth and the moon; with lower gravity, lunar clocks run faster by around 56 millionths of a second daily

This week, the final full moon of 2025, known as the 'Cold Moon', rises on December 5. Several livestreams will broadcast the event in real time if the weather or city skylines block your view

The race for the next great resource isn’t on earth - it’s on the moon. A Finnish tech firm has just spent over $300 million buying Helium-3

ISRO on Saturday said it has collected advanced data from the Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter to gain a deeper understanding of the Moon's polar regions, including parameters describing the physical and dielectric properties of its surface. This is India's major value addition towards future global exploration of the Moon, it said. According to an ISRO statement, the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter has been in orbit around the Moon since 2019 and has been providing high-quality data. One of the payloads, the Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR), is the first instrument that has mapped the Moon using the L-band in full-polarimetric mode and in the highest resolution (25m/pixel). This advanced radar mode sends and receives signals in both vertical and horizontal directions, making it ideal for studying surface properties, it said. The space agency said that since its launch, about 1,400 radar datasets have been collected and processed to create polarimetric mosaics of the north and sou

Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy sees the plan to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon as a new space race, especially given China's and Russia's growing ambitions in space

In an unexpected twist, Earth's spin is set to accelerate in July and August, leading to the shortest days on record - with July 9, July 22 and August 5 tipped to lose precious milliseconds

June's full moon, the last of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere, is also known as the Strawberry Moon. Here's all you need to know

This month, skywatchers in India can witness 'the Strawberry Moon 2025', nature's gentle nod to the summer arrival. The best time to watch in India will be on the June 10, 2025 at evening

The May full moon or 'Flower Moon' will rise on May 12 at around 12.56 pm EDT, precisely. Here's why this micromoon is special and what it means for skywatchers

Lunar eclipse 2025: The first lunar eclipse of 2025 will take place on March 13 and 14. The event is likely to last for around 65 minutes, and this event will also feature a "Blood Moon"

In the very long term, meaning decades down the line, space mining may be a highly profitable venture

A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over. Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the moon's south pole standing 15 feet (4.7 meters) tall or lying sideways like its first spacecraft from a year ago. Controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander's equipment to conserve power while trying to determine what went wrong. It was the second moon landing this week by a Texas company under NASA's commercial lunar delivery programme. Sunday's touchdown was a complete success. The company's newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. The hourlong descent appeared to go well until the final approach when the laser navigation system began acting up. It took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown. We're on the surface, reported mission director and co-founder Tim Crain. A few minutes

Ice could be present at more locations right beneath the Moon's surface at the poles than previously thought, a study of data collected by the Chandrayaan-3 mission has suggested. Large, yet highly local, changes in surface temperatures can directly affect the forming of ice, and looking into these ice particles can reveal "different stories about their origin and history", lead author, Durga Prasad Karanam, Faculty, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad told PTI. This can also tell us about how ice accumulated and moved through the Moon's surface over time, which can provide insights into the natural satellite's early geologic processes, he said. The findings are published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from Bengaluru, achieved a soft landing near the Moon's south pole on August 23, 2023. The landing site was named the 'Shiv Shakti Point' three days later on August 26. For

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbour ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon's northeastern edge of the near side. Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away. You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon, Firefly's Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported. An upright and stable landing makes Firefly a startup founded a decade ago the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan. A half hour