By Jatan Mehta | The world’s only newsletter dedicated to covering and contextualizing global lunar exploration updates, including plans to return humans this decade.
Artemis
Orion comes back home with dreams of a crewed Moon landing Like the skip of a stone on water, NASA’s crew-capable Artemis I Orion capsule incoming from the Moon performed an autonomously guided bounced reentry into Earth’s atmosphere on December 11, subsequently descending with aid from its mighty
Artemis
Orion blazes past the Moon to head back home Today, December 5, the uncrewed Orion spacecraft part of NASA’s Artemis I Moon mission precisely propelled itself on a trajectory to Earth, a minute after flying 127 kilometers above the Moon at its closest. Orion’s powerhouse European Service Module
Artemis
NASA’s crew-capable Orion spacecraft now orbiting the Moon In what seems to be a very successful Artemis I mission, NASA’s uncrewed Orion spacecraft entered its desired Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) around our Moon as of November 25. Upon completing about half an orbit on December 1 at an
Artemis
Artemis I launches the world’s ambitions and hopes for the Moon In a collective sigh of relief felt across the global space community, NASA finally launched the 1.6-million-kilogram SLS rocket on November 16, perfectly per the post-liftoff timeline, setting in motion the historic Artemis I mission to send
Moon Monday
CAPSTONE enters lunar orbit On November 13, the NASA-funded and Advanced Space-led CAPSTONE spacecraft successfully executed a 16-minute burn of 0.44 Newtons at the right time as it flew by the Moon and entered into its intended unique Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit. This is the same orbit that the NASA-led
Moon Monday
A public service announcement since Moon Monday is my most read space (pun intended): With everything happening at Twitter, many people are flocking to Mastodon and/or other platforms. As an open Web enthusiast who is on Mastodon and similar socials since years, I think that’s great but misses
Artemis
Lunar Flashlight to launch alongside ispace’s Moon lander in November In a delightful update, NASA announced last week that the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat will launch as a secondary payload between November 9–15 onboard the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will lift ispace Japan’s first Moon lander.
Chandrayaan
I’ve never been more proud and happy to publish a post on the Internet, for this is the 100th edition of Moon Monday. When I started the newsletter nearly 2 years ago, it didn’t seem there would be enough happening in lunar exploration to reflect on every week
Moon Monday
ispace to launch for the Moon in November ispace Japan has completed space environmental testing of its first lunar lander in Germany, and is now targeting launch in the November 9–15 timeframe on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Mission payloads include the UAE’s 10-kilogram Rashid rover (sporting two
Moon Monday
ESA’s Moonlight constellation plans forge forward Why build a constellation of lunar satellites that provide navigation and communications services around the Moon? For one, a NavCom service will enable cost-effective Moon missions, as spacecraft would no longer need their own hefty communications hardware and rented ground infrastructure. Nations with
CLPS
A look at Australian efforts to explore our Moon A little over 3 years after being founded, the Australian Space Agency announced its first Moon mission in October 2021. The agency will soon competitively fund an Australian industry consortia to develop the mission’s lunar rover for a maximum cost
Moon Monday
NASA wants the SLS rocket and its teams to withstand a storm On September 21, NASA successfully conducted the cryogenic leak test to verify the integrity of the newly replaced seals on the SLS rocket’s core stage, where a persistent, large hydrogen leak forced the agency to scrub the
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