Artemis 3

In contrast to Earth's vibrant ecosystems, the moon has long been perceived as a barren and lifeless celestial body, devoid of water and signs of vitality. However, one NASA scientist believes there is more to the moon than meets the eye.According to Prabal Saxena, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, microbial life could persist in the severe circumstances found on the moon. "Relatively protected areas on airless bodies may harbour potentially habitable niches for such life," Saxena explained, as…

SpaceX’s Starship could end up delaying humanity’s return to the Moon as NASA waits on the company’s lander to be ready to touchdown on the lunar surface, according to a space agency official.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewOn Wednesday, Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said that the Artemis 3 mission, designed to land astronauts on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, would likely be pushed back to 2026 instead of 2025,…

The space race to Moon has been getting intense. NASA has already planned a crewed mission to Moon, Artemis 3, for 2023. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) also has its Chandrayaan-3 mission planned for July 12. And now, China has announced its ambitious plans of sending astronauts to the Moon before 2030 and expand the country's orbiting space station as well.“We have a complete near-Earth human space station and human round-trip transportation system," complemented by a process for selecting, training and…

Jeff Bezos’s dream has finally come true, as his aerospace company Blue Origin has been chosen by NASA to build a human landing system for Artemis 5 and subsequent missions to the lunar surface.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonThe space agency made the announcement Friday at a press event held at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. SpaceX is currently under contract to develop human landing systems (HLS) for Artemis 3 and Artemis 4, but NASA sought to issue a second lander award for an “additional, different…

SpaceX is to make a second attempt on Thursday to carry out the first test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.A planned liftoff Monday of the gigantic rocket was aborted less than 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled launch because of a pressurization issue in the first-stage booster.The new window for liftoff from Starbase, the SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas, opens on Thursday at 8:28 am Central Time (1328 GMT) and lasts for about an hour,…

As NASA inches closer to returning humans to the Moon and reaching Mars for the first time, the space agency has developed a comprehensive blueprintto establish a long-term human presence at both locations. In an important next step, the plan has passed its first internal review. Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewNASA’s Architecture Definition Document, along with the six white papers and executive summary released alongside it, is a gigantic technical document that outlines…

Teams at an underwater facility in Houston, Texas, are making preparations to train astronauts who are preparing for future missions to the Moon. This facility is being modified to recreate the harsh lunar environment by submerging future moonwalkers in a pool that’s 40 feet deep.Three Astronauts May Be Stranded on the ISS After Disturbing Soyuz Coolant LeakAstronauts have been training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at NASA’s Sonny Carter Training Facility for more than 30 years, with the buoyancy of 6.2…

NASA’s Artemis 2 is feeling realer by the minute. The next upper stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket is now ready for tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in advance of the upcoming mission. Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewUnited Launch Alliance (ULA) has started testing the second Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), which recently came out of its storage and moved into a test cell at the Delta Operation Center for pre-flight testing and preparations,…

This week, NASA announces the names of the four astronauts who will venture beyond the Moon for the planned Artemis 2 mission next year, and we couldn’t be more excited.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewSpring is in the air and so are Falcon 9 rockets, two of which are set to launch this week. It’s also the season for new insights into an upcoming private mission to the ISS and the launch of an important pollution-monitoring sensor. NASA’s big Artemis 2 astronaut revealOn Monday…

The Artemis 2 crew: Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch.Photo: NASAThe next phase of NASA’s return-to-the-Moon program is underway, with the space agency naming the four-person Artemis 2 crew who will fly around the Moon and back.In 1972, NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt visited the Moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission. No human has been back since, but we now know the names of thefour astronauts who will finally revisit the lunar environment,…