Tag: Moon
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NASA Selects Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX Human Landers for Artemis
NASA has selected three companies to develop Human Landing Systems (HLS) to support future crewed moon landings. Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX will develop their designs over a ten month period, before a down-selection to one or two vehicles that will fly uncrewed demonstration missions. The Artemis III mission will then utilize one of these…
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NASA awards robotic lunar landing contract to Masten Space Systems
Masten’s XL-1 lunar lander will deliver science and technology payloads to the moon’s south pole in 2022.Credit: Masten Space Systems NASA has awarded Masten Space Systems, a small company based in Mojave, California, a $75.9 million contract to deliver nine science and technology instruments to the moon’s south pole in 2022 with its XL-1 robotic…
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NOVA-C selects landing site, Masten gains CLPS contracts
Intuitive Machines (IM) announced the IM-1 mission with the Nova-C lander has selected the Oceanus Procellarum near the Vallis Schrasöteri as a landing site. The Nova-C lander is a lunar lander under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, with the goal of testing technologies to help land astronauts on the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines…
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Photos: ‘Pink supermoon’ rises over Seattle
Pink Supermoon rises over Seattle’s Lake Union on April 7, 2020. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) Are you seeking something to do in these trying times with social distancing and travel restrictions? May I suggest some moon viewing of April’s “pink supermoon” this evening from your backyard or neighborhood? While the official full moon occurred…
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NASA picks Masten Space Systems to deliver science to the moon’s south pole
An artist’s conception shows Masten Space Systems’ XL-1 lander on the moon. (Masten Space Systems Illustration) NASA has selected California-based Masten Space Systems to deliver eight science payloads to the moon’s south pole in 2022 on its XL-1 lunar lander. Seattle-based Olis Robotics has a role in getting one of those payloads, a robotic arm,…
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Xplore wins award from Air Force to study navigational tools for moon missions
An artisti’s conception shows Xplore’s Xcraft with the moon in the background. (Xplore Illustration) Seattle-based Xplore has won a $50,000 award from the Air Force to develop an architecture for keeping track of missions between Earth and the moon. The three-month study is being funded through the Air Force’s AFWERX technology innovation program, a partnership…
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SpaceX wins NASA contract to send cargo to lunar Gateway with new Dragon XL craft
An artist’s conception shows SpaceX’s Dragon XL cargo ship as it is deployed from the Falcon Heavy’s second stage in high Earth orbit, on its way to the Gateway in lunar orbit. (SpaceX Illustration) NASA has tapped a type of SpaceX cargo craft that hasn’t yet been built to deliver supplies to a moon-orbiting outpost…
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NASA decides against using Gateway for 2024 lunar landing
As NASA organizes a push to return a human presence to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, the agency has made critical changes to the plan that would enable a crewed lunar landing to occur no later than 2024. One of these modifications involved the Lunar Gateway, a modular space station…
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Apollo astronaut Al Worden dies at 88
Astronaut Al Worden is seen during training before the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Credit: NASA Former astronaut Al Worden, who orbited the moon and performed the first spacewalk in deep space in 1971, died Wednesday in Texas. He was 88. Born Feb. 7, 1932, in Jackson, Michigan, Worden graduated from United States Military Academy at…
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NASA no longer counting on Gateway for 2024 moon landing
Artist’s concept of the Gateway mini-space station near the moon. Credit: NASA NASA is modifying plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2024 by taking the Gateway — a mini-space station to be assembled in lunar orbit — out of the critical path in favor of a simplified architecture, according to the agency’s…