All articles tagged with #moon
NASA astronaut Christina Koch—the first woman to leave low Earth orbit and to travel around the Moon—will visit her alma mater North Carolina State University on Aug. 24-25 for events called 'Around the Moon and Pack Again,' including a public welcome at The Oval, a media Q&A, and livestreamed campus programs; some Tuesday events are private for students and faculty but also livestreamed.
China has postponed its planned Chang’e-7 lunar mission, originally scheduled to launch from Wenchang on Hainan Island, after officials said the launch conditions were not met and the decision was made in the interest of prudence, reliability and absolute mission success. The mission, the seventh in China’s Chang’e program, would have explored permanently shadowed lunar craters for water ice and conducted environmental/resource surveys of the lunar south pole; preparations had proceeded at the Wenchang site before the postponement, following Chang’e-6’s 2024 sample return.
Green volcanic-glass beads collected by Apollo 15 in 1971 later yielded hydrogen, providing the first clear evidence that water existed inside the Moon when those beads formed and challenging the long-held view of a completely dry Moon. Follow-up work, including Brown University research in 2008 and further analyses by 2011, found water concentrations in the beads comparable to some terrestrial basalts, implying the lunar mantle contains significant water and prompting revisions to theories about the Moon’s formation and volatile retention. NASA now recognizes water in multiple forms on the Moon, from permanently shadowed regions to sunlit areas, with the beads serving as an early key clue to the Moon’s hidden interior.
NASA researchers tested five Earth microbes (including Deinococcus radiodurans and Aspergillus niger) in simulated lunar conditions and found that shadowed lunar polar pockets could preserve microbes in cryptobiosis, suggesting the Moon may be less inhospitable than thought and that astronauts could unintentionally contaminate it; the study in Science Advances used LRO data to map radiation and UV exposure and highlights cold traps at the poles as potential refuges for microbial life, raising planetary-protection considerations and opportunities for future sterile experiments.
China plans to launch the Chang’e-7 mission—an uncrewed lander, rover and hopping probe—to the Moon’s south pole to search permanently shadowed craters for water ice, a key resource for future bases. Slated for a November-style window from Wenchang on a Long March 5, the mission will test technology to access ice, inform possible joint studies with Russia, and lay groundwork for a crewed lunar landing by 2030 amid NASA’s Artemis program and other national efforts.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured high‑resolution images of SpaceX's Falcon 9 upper stage crashing into the Moon, creating a 60-foot-wide, under-10-foot-deep crater that overlaps an existing one. The event was first identified by Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, with the LRO photos showing ejecta trails. The piece highlights growing lunar debris as private missions increase and notes gaps in governance under the Outer Space Treaty, referencing earlier crashes in 2022 and 2023 as examples of the issue.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured before-and-after images showing a fresh ~60‑foot crater on the Moon caused by SpaceX’s Falcon upper stage crashing into the surface at about 5,400 mph on Aug. 5, 2026. The high‑resolution shots reveal dark ejecta rays near the crater and brighter material farther out, photographed from 60 miles up about a week after impact as part of NASA’s push to commercialize lunar exploration; South Korea’s Danuri was first on scene, and LRO has orbited the Moon since 2009 to monitor the surface.
In this Rocket Report edition, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 upper stage made a fresh lunar crater captured by NASA’s LRO, signaling a future likely dominated by Starship as Falcon 9 commercial launches may wind down after 2028; China’s Long March family rebounds with a successful Long March 12 flight and a Chang’e 7 mission targeting Shackleton crater near the Moon’s south pole; LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 demonstrates booster recovery; Taiwan’s NCSIST test for a military launcher experiences a trajectory anomaly triggering self-destruct; Innospace suffers a second suborbital failure; ULA names Mark Peller as president and CEO amid Vulcan grounding; ESA halts Ariane 6 Block 3 in favor of Block 2 and a new kick stage; cost-to-orbit data show the U.S. leading due to reuse, while Ukraine strikes a Russian rocket facility.
China’s Chang’e-7 mission, a multi-hop robotic expedition featuring an orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping spacecraft with international instruments, is targeting an Aug. 24, 2026 launch to the Moon’s south pole near Shackleton Crater. The mission will perform integrated orbital, landing, roaming and hopping operations to study the lunar environment and resources (including potential water ice), test new tech such as an image navigation system, and lay groundwork for a future crewed lunar landing by 2030 and the broader International Lunar Research Station with international partners.
China plans the Chang’e-7 lunar mission to search for accessible water ice near the Moon’s south pole using an orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping vehicle (with the Queqiao-2 relay satellite already in place). The mission aims to locate where the ice resides, its form and concentration, and assess how feasible it is to access—marking a shift from mere exploration to resource assessment, in parallel with NASA’s CLPS approach and set against broader plans for sustained lunar activity.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images showing a 60-foot-wide crater near Einstein crater on the Moon, created when the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 impacted the lunar surface on Aug. 5, 2025. The discarded upper stage hit at about 5,400 mph (8,700 km/h) after a Jan. 15, 2025 mission to deliver lunar landers. First spotted by independent astronomer Bill Gray, NASA refined the impact location with LRO observations taken Aug. 11–12, revealing dust and rock ejecta streaks around the crater. The event was difficult to observe from Earth due to lighting and the Moon’s geometry, and the crater is relatively small compared with typical meteoroid impacts.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured images of a roughly 60-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep crater on the Moon left by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage that crashed after an extended, unstable trajectory. The orbiter photographed the site from about 60 miles altitude during Aug. 11–12, after global coordination among scientists and hobbyists to locate the impact, with the images released on Aug. 18.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the first detailed views of a fresh crater on the Moon formed when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage slammed into the surface on Aug. 5. The crater is about 18 meters (60 feet) wide and under 3 meters (10 feet) deep, with bright and dark ejecta rays indicating recent excavation. The Danuri spacecraft helped pinpoint the site, and the images shed light on lunar impact processes and the hazards posed by space debris for future Moon missions.
Seventy countries have joined the Artemis Accords to turn broad space-law principles into practical rules for lunar missions. The accords are non-binding and do not amend the 1967 Outer Space Treaty or create an enforcement body; instead, they rely on notification, coordination, and temporary safety zones, with enforcement through state responsibility and diplomacy. Resource rights remain debated, and the 70-signatory milestone signals momentum toward shared norms, though universal rules will depend on how signatories act when overlaps or conflicts occur.
Space.com’s Gemma Lavender lists the five best binocular targets to spot: the Moon, Jupiter’s Galilean moons, the double star pair Mizar and Alcor, Auriga’s open clusters (M36, M37, M38), and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31); plus practical tips on choosing binoculars, magnification, stability (tripods or image-stabilized models), and observing under dark skies for the most detail.