Page 2 - Lunar Mission

US-made lunar lander 'Odysseus' may have tipped while reaching the moon

The complication could be a setback for Intuitive Machines and partner NASA

Know about 'Odysseus', Intuitive Machines' private lander on Moon: 5 points

The mission dubbed as 'IM-1' is Intuitive Machines' first mission through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative - a key part of NASA's Artemis program

Why it took the US more than half a century to get back on the moon

The biggest hurdle may have been the 21st century engineers and companies with little or no moonshot experience

America's Odysseus spacecraft makes 1st commercial moon landing in history

Notably, this landing comes months after India's Chandrayaan-3 lander, which became the first spacecraft from the country to safely reach the lunar surface in August 2023

US company's lunar lander rockets to attempt landing on moon next week

Another private US company took a shot at the moon on Thursday, launching a month after a rival's lunar lander missed its mark and came crashing back. NASA, the main sponsor with experiments on board, is hoping for a successful moon landing next week as it seeks to jumpstart the lunar economy ahead of astronaut missions. SpaceX's Falcon rocket blasted off in the middle of the night from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, dispatching Intuitive Machines' lunar lander on its way to the moon, 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometres) away. If all goes well, a touchdown attempt would occur on February 22, after a day in lunar orbit. Only five countries the US, Russia, China, India and Japan have scored a lunar landing and no private business has yet done so. The US has not returned to the moon's surface since the Apollo program ended more than five decades ago. There have been a lot of sleepless nights getting ready for this, Intuitive Machines' co-founder and chief executive Steve Altemus said ..

Japan spacecraft lands on lunar surface, becomes 5th country to reach moon

Japan's space agency said early Saturday that its spacecraft is on the moon, but is still "checking its status". More details will be given at a news conference, officials said. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, came down onto the lunar surface at around 12:20 am. Tokyo time Saturday (1520 GMT Friday). No astronauts were onboard the spacecraft. If SLIM landed successfully, Japan would become the fifth country to accomplish the feat after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India. As the spacecraft descended, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's mission control said that everything was going as planned and later said that SLIM was on the lunar surface. But there was no mention of whether the landing was successful. Mission control kept repeating that it was checking its status" and that more information would be given at a news conference. It wasn't immediately clear when the news conference would start. SLIM, nicknamed "the Moon Sniper," started its

Chandrayaan-3 lander serving as location marker near lunar south pole

An instrument on Chandrayaan-3 lander has started serving as a location marker near the lunar south pole, the ISRO said on Friday. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) on the Chandrayaan-3 lander has begun serving as a fiducial point (precisely located markers for reference) on the Moon, the national space agency headquartered here said in a statement. US space agency NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) achieved a laser range measurement using the LRA by successfully detecting signals reflected by it on December 12, 2023, it said. "The ranging utilised the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) on the LRO. The observation occurred during lunar night time, with the LRO ascending to the east of Chandrayaan-3," ISRO said. NASA's LRA was accommodated on the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander under international collaboration. It comprises eight corner-cube retroreflectors on a hemispherical support structure. This array facilitates lasers ranging from various directions by any orbiting .

US-made lunar lander has 'no chance' of touching down on moon: Report

Astrobotic's announcement comes a day after the moon lander, called Peregrine, launched aboard United Launch Alliance LLC's new Vulcan rocket but suffered an apparent propulsion issue in space

China says it will launch its next lunar explorer in the first half of 2024

China's space agency said on Wednesday that its latest lunar explorer had arrived at the launch site in preparation for a mission to the moon in the first half of this year. State broadcaster CCTV posted photos on its website of the unit under wraps as it was unloaded from a large cargo airplane earlier this week and then transported by flatbed truck to the Wenchang launch site on southern China's Hainan island. The announcement came a day after a US company abandoned a lunar landing planned for February 23 because of a fuel leak that started soon after takeoff on Monday. China and the US are both pursuing plans to land astronauts on the moon in what has become a growing rivalry in space. The US plans to do so in 2026, and China's target date is before 2030. The China National Space Administration said that pre-launch tests would be carried out on its Chang'e-6 probe. The mission's goals include bringing back samples from the far side of the moon. Another US moon lander from a Hou

After new rocket's successful launch, US moon lander faces malfunction

"The team is responding in real time as the situation unfolds and will be providing updates as data is obtained and analysed," Astrobotic posted on the social media service X

China sends youngest crew to space as it plans to put astronauts on moon

China launched its youngest-ever crew for its orbiting space station on Thursday as it seeks to put astronauts on the moon before 2030. The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 11:14 a.m. (0314 GMT) According to the China Manned Space Agency, the average age of the three-member crew is the youngest since the launch of the space station construction mission, state broadcaster CCTV earlier reported. Their average age is 38, state media China Daily said. Beijing is pursuing plans to place astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade amid a rivalry with the U.S. for reaching new milestones in outer space. This reflects the competition for influence between the world's two largest economies in the technology, military and diplomatic fields. The trio - Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin - will replace a crew that has been on the station for six months

Aim for space station by 2035, India on Moon by 2040: PM Modi to scientists

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked scientists to aim to send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040 and set up an Indian space station by 2035, according to an official statement. He gave these directions during a meeting to review the preparedness of the Gaganyaan mission and the first demonstration flight of the crew escape system test vehicle scheduled for October 21. "The meeting evaluated the mission's readiness, affirming its launch in 2025," the statement said. During the meeting, the prime minister outlined the future of India's space exploration endeavours and urged scientists to work towards interplanetary missions, including a Venus Orbiter Mission and a Mars Lander. "Building on the success of Indian space initiatives, including the recent Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 missions, the prime minister directed that India should now aim for new and ambitious goals, including setting up 'Bharatiya Antariksha Station' (Indian space station) by 2035 and sending first ..

To the Moon and back: On Artemis III mission, Nasa astronauts to wear Prada

Artemis III: As the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972, the mission will also be the first to place a woman on the Moon

China's 2024 lunar mission Chang'e-6 to carry payload from Pakistan

China's next lunar mission scheduled for 2024 will also carry a payload from Pakistan, the country's space agency has said, as the two all-weather friends step up their cooperation in the space sector. The Chang'e-6 lunar mission is currently undergoing research and development work as planned, state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Friday quoting China National Space Administration (CNSA). The Chang'e-6 mission, with the launch scheduled for around 2024, is tasked with bringing back samples from the far side of the moon. To date, all 10 lunar sampling missions conducted by humans have taken place on the near side of the moon, The Global Times newspaper reported. The far side is generally older and contains the Aitken Basin, one of the three major lunar landforms, making it of significant scientific value, the report said, quoting CNSA. The Chang'e-6 mission aims at landing the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side to explore and collect lunar samples from different regions and

Top Chinese scientist claims India's moon landing nowhere near south pole

On Earth, 69 degrees south would be within the Antarctic Circle, but the lunar version of the circle is much closer to the pole

Isro's achievement has made every Indian proud: Om Birla on lunar mission

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said the decision to mark August 23 as 'National Space Day' will inspire future generations to set high goals in life and to work hard to realise them. He also welcomed the naming of the footprint of Chandrayaan-2 on the Moon as 'Tiranga Point', and the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 as 'Shiv Shakti Point'. He felt that these names are a tribute to India's age-old heritage as well as a symbol of its scientific ambitions and efforts. In his opening remarks during a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission and other achievements of the nation in the space sector, he said the stupendous achievement of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has made every Indian proud and the nation's stature has increased at the global level. Noting that India has dedicated the success of Chandrayaan-3 to the world's scientific community and all of humanity, Birla said the valuable information sent by Pragyan rover from the Moon .

Aditya L1 takes STEPS to collect info on energetic particles from space

After India's solar mission Aditya L1 began its journey towards Lagrange point 1 following a key manoeuvre, it has started studying energetic particles in the solar wind from space, and will continue to do so for the rest of its life, a senior astrophysicist said. The study of the solar wind, the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun which permeates the solar system, will be carried out with the help of a device named Supra Thermal & Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS), a part of the Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) payload. STEPS is now working from space. However, it was not sitting idle earlier. It has started functioning from within the magnetic field of the Earth since September 10 when Aditya was 52,000 kilometres above our planet, Dr Dibyendu Chakrabarty, professor of Space and Atmospheric Sciences at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) said. STEPS was developed by the PRL with support from the Space Application Centre (SAC) in ...

Isro's Chandrayaan-3 space journey to be discussed in Rajya Sabha today

With the success of 'Chandrayaan-3', India also became the first country to have placed a lander on the moon's hitherto unexplored south pole

Moon mission, G20, cricket World Cup…great year for India: UK PM Sunak

In India, just this year, the moon mission, what an extraordinary success, this G20, which is going to be a huge success and, of course, said British PM

Vikram lander makes soft-landing, successfully undergoes hop test: Isro

ISRO on Monday said the Vikram lander successfully underwent a hop test when it made the soft-landing again on the lunar surface. On command it (Vikram lander) fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 to 40 cm away, ISRO said in an update on 'X'. Noting that the Vikram lander exceeded its mission objectives, ISRO said the importance of the exercise was that this 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions. "Vikram soft-landed on the moon, again! Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment. On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30-40 cm away," ISRO said in a post. "Importance?: This 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions! All systems performed nominally and are healthy. Deployed Ramp, ChaSTE and ILSA were folded back and redeployed successfully after the experiment,"