moon

China launches new crew to its space station as it seeks to expand exploration

1:41am October 30, 2024

China declared a “complete success” after it launched a new three-person crew to its space station early Wednesday as the country seeks to expand its exploration of outer space.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at the space agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

NASA's chief is worried about China getting back to the moon first. Here's why

9:33am May 06, 2024

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told NPR he sees the U.S. in an urgent race with China to find water on the moon, and that he trusts SpaceX, despite Elon Musk's increasingly controversial profile.

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A new lunar time zone has been pitched for the moon.

NASA has been asked to create a time zone for the moon. Here's how it would work

5:01am April 09, 2024

by Kai McNamee

A new lunar time zone is all about ensuring the success of future, multinational missions to the moon.

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These photos provided by NASA show images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team which confirmed Odysseus completed its landing.

National

Odysseus moon lander will cease working after sideways landing

2:12am February 27, 2024

by The Associated Press

Intuitive Machines, the company that built and flew the spacecraft, said it will continue to collect data until sunlight no longer shines on the solar panels, expected to happen Tuesday morning.

The IM-1 Nova-C lander, from Houston-based Intuitive Machines, just became the first private spacecraft to land on the moon in one piece.

Private lunar lander returns U.S. to the moon 50 years later. Here's what to know

9:32pm February 22, 2024

The Houston-based company has pulled off the first successful commercial landing on the lunar surface. It's America's first soft landing in decades.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2024. The rocket is carrying Intuitive Machines' lunar lander on its way to the moon, with a planned Feb. 22 touchdown.

Science

In latest lunar landing trial, Intuitive Machines hopes to get U.S. back to the moon

5:01am February 19, 2024

by Emma Bowman

If successful, the uncrewed spacecraft would be the first U.S. lunar landing in more than 50 years, and would mean one giant leap for the commercial space sector.

This image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University shows an image taken by a Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) of a robotic moon rover called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, on the moon.

World News

Japan's space agency says it may now have clues about the origins of the moon

5:03am February 15, 2024

by The Associated Press

An unmanned lunar spacecraft has captured and transmitted data analyzing lunar rocks, an achievement that could help provide clues about the origin of the moon, a Japan space agency official said

This image provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency shows an image taken by a Lunar Excursion Vehicle of a robotic moon rover called Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, on the moon.

World News

The Japanese moon lander gets back to work after the sun reaches its solar panels

9:06am January 29, 2024

by The Associated Press

A Japanese moon explorer is up and running Monday after several tense days without the sunlight it needs to generate power.

The SORA-Q robot is a sphere that can split and elongate, allowing it to traverse the moon's surface.

A transforming robot is about to land on the moon, where it will die

4:34pm January 18, 2024

by Bill Chappell

A Japanese space agency manager calls it "a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror!" The process includes ejecting a robot onto the lunar surface, to take photos of the moon lander.

United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41D at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Jan. 8, 2024, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander. After suffering a propellant leak, the lander now appears to be destined to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Peregrine moon lander heads back toward Earth and should burn up in the atmosphere

2:06pm January 14, 2024

by Joe Hernandez

The mission was to be the first time an American company sent a spacecraft to the moon — and the first time the U.S. returned to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.