Indian Space Progress
In this month’s Indian Space Progress edition, I want to highlight how increasing independence in being able to plan and execute planetary missions can lead to uniquely impactful collaborations between organizations globally. India’s Chandrayaan program has been becoming incrementally indigenous, and the two stories below highlight its utility
Moon Monday
I’m delighted to share that The Orbital Index is continuing being a Moon Monday sponsor for the third year in a row! 🚀 Their crisp, technical archive of weekly space updates over the last five years is genuinely worth perusing, and searching within, because Andrew, Ben and Sarajane ensure it’
Japan and Selene
Life update: This week I’m moving to Bengaluru, the space hub of India. Looking ahead, I’m excited to expand my space horizons and coverage by continually existing where the country’s space epicenter is. Announcement: With no Moon missions launching this month, and no major updates expected from
Moon Monday
On April 3, NASA selected teams led by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to mature their designs for a versatile Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), one of which will be used on a firm, fixed price service basis by NASA across Artemis missions starting with Artemis V end of
Pages
Look, I hate social networks. I’m not active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and the ilk. And that’s despite the fact that I’m an independent space writer who needs to promote my work because no one else will do it for me. But trust me, it
Moon Monday
NASA selects science instruments to be deployed on the Moon by Artemis III astronauts In a historic return since Apollo, NASA aims to land astronauts on our Moon again in late 2026 with Artemis III. What science instruments will they carry to deploy on the lunar south pole for advancing
Indian Space Progress
An update about the last Indian Space Progress edition before we begin this one: My review of India’s Gaganyaan mission to send astronauts to space has been republished on Jeff Foust’s revered community blog The Space Review! ^_^ How ISRO is building a reusable spaceplane Almost a year after
Moon Monday
China doubles down on lunar infrastructure with the launch and orbital insertion of Queqiao 2 On March 20 at 00:31 UTC, China’s Long March 8 rocket launched the 1200-kilogram Queqiao 2 lunar communications relay satellite on a Moon-ward trajectory with an orbit of 200 by 420,000 kilometers.
Moon Monday
NASA’s road to Luna advances through Starship SpaceX’s third launch of its fully integrated Starship Super Heavy rocket on March 14 achieved orbital velocity, clearing a major milestone of the long path to putting humans on the Moon again since NASA has selected Starship’s lunar variant to
CLPS
In Moon Monday #166, I wrote how Intuitive Machines and NASA skewed the success criteria of the former’s first Moon landing mission. I did not think the article would be taken as well as it was: Celestial Citizen, in their latest Continuum newsletter: While a private endeavor like Intuitive
Japan and Selene
Japan’s SLIM lander has sparked a new era of precision landings, with big implications for lunar science and exploration
Artemis
NASA’s FY2024 budget for Luna The US Congress will provide NASA with $24.9 billion for FY2024, a budget two billion less than the Presidential request and half a billion less than FY2023. Accounting for inflation only makes the cut deeper. However, the US Congress has prioritized and maintained
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