Tag: Moon
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China Roundup: Tianlong-3 static fire anomaly, Chang’e 6 sample return, and next-generation rockets
Throughout the last few weeks, several events in Chinese spaceflight have created international headlines. After launching a Chang Zheng 2C rocket that would later fall onto an inhabited village, a Tianlong-3 rocket was unexpectedly released during a static fire test and would crash in an area close to the launch site. However, not all of…
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China Retrieves Nearly Two Kilograms of Lunar Samples from Moon’s Far Side
China’s Chang’e-6 reentry capsule successfully landed back on Earth on June 25, concluding a 53-day mission that retrieved 1,935.3 grams of lunar samples from the moon’s far side. The capsule, recovered as planned in Inner Mongolia’s grasslands of Siziwang Banner, was airlifted to Beijing and opened on June 26 to retrieve the sample canister, the…
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NASA Awards SpaceX $843 Million to Build Space Station Deorbit Vehicle
NASA announced on Wednesday that it has selected SpaceX to build a vehicle, dubbed the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle, tasked with safely deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS) by around 2030. This responsibility was originally planned for Russian thrusters. The agreement, valued at $843 million, aims to ensure a controlled retirement of the ISS, minimizing risks…
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Rocks from the far side of the Moon landed on Earth Tuesday
A small spacecraft landed in Inner Mongolia on Tuesday, bringing samples from the far side of the Moon back to Earth. This was not China’s first robotic mission to return a few pounds of dust and pebbles from the lunar surface—that came with the Chang’e 5 mission in December 2020. However, this was the first…
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China Roundup: Chang’e 6 lands on the Moon, and record-breaking EVA
China’s Chang’e 6 landed on and sampled the far side of the Moon while the Shenzhou-18 crew performed a record-breaking spacewalk at the Tiangong Space Station. Additionally, 10 more rockets were launched from the country in the last few weeks. Chang’e 6 lands on the far side of the Moon China’s sixth uncrewed lunar exploration…
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Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who took ‘Earthrise’ picture, dies in plane crash at 90
Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders adjlusts his helmet while suiting up for his 1968 moon mission. (NASA Photo) Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who snapped the iconic “Earthrise” photo of our planet as seen from lunar orbit, died today in a plane crash in waters off the San Juan Islands. The 90-year-old spaceflier’s son, Greg…
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China launches to the far side of the Moon with sample return
In cooperation with France, China launched the Chang’e 6 mission. The launch happened at Friday, May 3, at 09:27 UTC, and the mission’s main goal is a regolith sample return from the surface of the Moon. The launch happened during very rainy conditions, which did not affect launch criteria. About the mission In overall structure,…
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Launch Roundup: China returns to the moon, SpaceX keeps up high launch cadence
This week, China returns to the Moon with the Chang’e-6 mission, making the first-ever attempt to collect samples from a site on the far side, near the lunar South Pole. SpaceX keeps up its high cadence with the launch of the long-delayed WorldView Legion satellites from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space…
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NASA still doesn’t understand root cause of Orion heat shield issue
NASA officials declared the Artemis I mission successful in late 2022, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft performed nearly flawlessly on an unpiloted flight that took it around the Moon and back to Earth, setting the stage for the Artemis II, the program’s first crew…
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In exchange for a lunar rover, Japan will get seats on Moon-landing missions
On the sidelines of the state visit by the Japanese prime minister to Washington this week, US and Japanese officials have signed an agreement to cement a partnership that will pave the way for a Japanese astronaut to walk on the Moon. The Japanese astronaut, still unnamed, will become the first international astronaut to walk…