By Jatan Mehta | The world’s only newsletter dedicated to covering and contextualizing global lunar exploration updates, including plans to return humans to our Moon this decade.
Moon Monday
Mission updates * ULA CEO Tory Bruno says the company’s Vulcan rocket will launch no earlier than June. This update comes as full-scale Vulcan testing resumes following an investigation prompted by the March 29 blowing up of a test Centaur V upper stage, which is a key element of the
Moon Monday
China to launch Queqiao 2 and Chang’e 6 lunar missions next year Queqiao 2 relay satellite China is on track to launch the Queqiao 2 lunar orbiter by May next year, Andrew Jones reports. Its 4.2-meter wide parabolic antenna will relay communications between Earth and CNSA’s upcoming
Moon Monday
On ispace’s failed Moon landing attempt and related tangents for NASA’s CLPS craft On April 25, ispace Japan’s first lunar lander Hakuto-R aced through its remotely-initiated, hour-long autonomous descent on the Moon until the very last moments when it stopped communicating to Earth. ispace said that while
US Artemis
I’m stoked to share that Epsilon3 is continuing their sponsorship of Moon Monday for another year! 🌗 Epsilon3 is a web-based platform for managing complex spacecraft testing and operational procedures. Designed to save time and reduce risk in building space mission hardware, Epsilon3 is used by engineers and hardware operators
Moon Monday
I’m happy to share that The Orbital Index is continuing their sponsorship of Moon Monday for another year! 🚀 Considering that the newsletter was part of my inspiration for starting Moon Monday, Andrew and Ben’s support continues to be a gratifying validation of my efforts to cover in context
US Artemis
Canada ramps up its lunar exploration ambitions On March 28, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced long-term budgets to accelerate the country’s lunar exploration endeavors, summarized below in context: * Thanks to Canada contributing the Canadarm3 robotics servicing system to the Gateway, an upcoming NASA-led international lunar orbital habitat, the
US Artemis
The astronauts who will fly around our Moon soon In what felt like an Apple-esque presentation, NASA announced today the four astronauts who will travel around our Moon and back as part of the 10-day Artemis II mission: * Reid Wiseman (Commander) * Victor Glover (Pilot) * Christina Hammock Koch (Mission Specialist) * Jeremy
Moon Monday
I’m thrilled to share that my writing is now also published on Payload Space! Read my first story for them on Artemis science, which is also featured up top in their newsletter today: NASA Announces Artemis Science Leads 🌗 I’ve had nice interactions with Ryan, Ari, and Rachael for
US Artemis
Okay, two things before we unpack some lovely lunar vibes: 1. So much happened in lunar exploration last week that this was one difficult edition to concisely contextualize. What an amazing problem to have! The immense pace with which we’re building for our Moon was unthinkable just a decade
Moon Monday
NASA to push the boundaries of cosmology and Moonbound science with LuSEE-Night NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy are co-developing LuSEE-Night, a first of its kind instrument which will measure faint but unique radio signals from our Universe’s ‘Dark Age’, a slice of time right before the
US Artemis
Mission updates * ispace Japan’s first Moon lander, launched on December 11 last year, is now approaching the Moon as part of its fuel-efficient trajectory for an orbital capture attempt in late March. I applaud the fact that ispace has provided an unusually detailed per-subsystem lander status update, and hope
ISRO Chandrayaan
US scientists urge NASA to plan LRO successor A specialized team of US scientists called CLOC-SAT, part of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), has released a report urging NASA to plan a replacement for the 2009-launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in order to support the increasingly important, upcoming NASA(
