Category: Moon

In brief The Mission X 2023 Walk to the Moon Challenge is now officially open.  As of 16 January, registered teams can complete activities, earn points, and help the Mission X mascots, Luna and Leo, walk to the Moon! In-depth Mission X is a free educational and inspirational project that challenges students to train like Read More

  Here is a look at the most significant events this year at America's multiuser spaceport:FEBRUARY Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at Kennedy   Credits: NASA/Cory Huston     Launch Control Center Renamed for Famed Launch Director     Following a Feb. 22 ceremony, the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida was officially renamed Read More

Webb's picture of the month December is dominated by NGC 7469, a luminous, face-on spiral galaxy approximately 90 000 light-years in diameter that lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus.  This spiral galaxy has recently been studied as part of the Great Observatories All-sky LIRGs Survey (GOALS), which aims to study Read More

Some 250 missions to the Moon will launch over the next decade alone, according to market analysists Northern Sky Research, which the company predicts will activate a €100 billion lunar economy, creating jobs and prosperity on Earth. ESA’s Moonlight initiative – which received financial backing from ESA’s Member States at the Council at the Ministerial Read More

Today marked the end of the first Artemis Moon mission, when NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 17:40 GMT/18:40 CET, after travelling around the Moon and farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans and return them to Earth. Just 40 minutes before splashdown, and having delivered Orion safely back to Read More

NASA’s Orion spacecraft, powered by ESA’s European Service Module, shares a stunning new take on ‘Earth rise’ following the return powered flyby of the Moon.   DCIM\100GOPRO\G0081549. This image was taken on 5 December, flight day 20, after the spacecraft completed a 3 minute 27 second burn to swing around the Moon and back to Earth.   Read More

An innovative ESA-backed instrument to sample the space weather environment in-situ is set to join the International Space Station. Norway’s multi-Needle Langmuir Probe, m-NLP, due to be fitted to the European-made Bartolomeo platform on the ISS, a ‘front porch’ open to space, will map the ionospheric plasma surrounding the Station in unprecedented high resolution, performing Read More

By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Universe has been framed in its infrared glory. Webb’s near-infrared image was fused with its mid-infrared image, setting this star-forming region ablaze with new details. Myriad stars are spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily Read More

These are images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument on 4 November 2022. The image on the left uses a filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere. The bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. The image on the right is a color composite image. Click Read More

photo Nasa Sixteen days into its test flight on the Artemis I mission, the Orion spacecraft is on a trajectory back to Earth.     On Thursday, Dec. 1, at 4:53 p.m. EST, Orion conducted an engine burn to propel the spacecraft out of its distant lunar orbit, where it has been since Nov. 25. Orion Read More