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Japan's first moon lander responded to a signal from Earth, suggesting it has survived a second freezing weekslong…

The SLIM lunar lander unexpectedly sprung back to life after hibernating during the freezing lunar night, sending a signal back to Earth more than a month after ending up face down on the Moon.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonOn Monday, Japan’s space agency revealed that it reestablished communication with its lander. Yes, breaking this into two sentences can improve clarity and readability. The team behind the mission sent a command to SLIM and, amazingly, received a response from the lunar lander on February…

The H3 rocket—11 years in the making—is set for its second launch, following a flubbed debut in March 2023. Japan urgently needs the rocket to succeed, with a second failure risking further delays and monumental headaches for Japan’s space program.Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: 3 Things We Love and HateH3 is ready to fly again after its botched maiden launch last year, with Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) targeting Wednesday, February 14 at 7:22 p.m. ET (Thursday, February 15 at 9:22 a.m. JST). The two-stage…

This Valentine’s Day, there will be more than love in the air, with SpaceX scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 Moon lander. Should Odysseus successfully touch down on the lunar surface eight days later, Intuitive Machines will achieve a first in commercial space travel—a a feat that would follow a series of ill-fated attempts at the title.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonThe multi-day launch window for Intuitive Machines’ much-anticipated IM-1 mission begins at 12:57 a.m. ET…

Japan’s SLIM, the Smart Lander for Investigation Moon, has entered a dormant mode on the Moon’s Shioli Crater, facing a 14-day lunar night with temperatures dropping below -200 degrees Fahrenheit.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonNight has fallen at Shioli Crater, and that means it’s likely the end of the line for SLIM. The lander has been placed into a hibernation mode from which it’s not expected to wake. But that doesn’t mean Japan’s space agency, JAXA, won’t try to revive the project in a couple of weeks.…

After nine days of sitting on its nose on the lunar surface, Japan’s upside-down Moon lander has finally found power. The “moon sniper,” as the lander has been called by many, landed on the lunar surface on January 20, marking the most precise lunar landing yet. However, something went wrong, and it was quickly powered off, as the solar panels were facing away from the Sun.Thankfully, though, Japan designed the lander to be able to power off and then back on if it were able to get enough of a charge. The result?…

Despite taking an unfortunate tumble on the lunar surface, Japan’s lunar lander has regained power more than a week after ending up face down on the Moon.China's Plan to Land Astronauts on the MoonThe Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Sunday that it had established communication with its Moon mission and resumed its operations. SLIM’s multiband spectroscopic camera (MBC) was even used to snap a photo of a rock dubbed “toy poodle” on the lunar surface, the space agency wrote on X.SLIM, short for Smart…

Japan's lunar lander has regained power a full nine days after it landed on the moon's surface nearly upside down and was subsequently switched off, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) announced. A change in the sun's position allowed the solar panels to receive light and charge the probe's battery, allowing JAXA to re-establish communication.Things were looking dire shortly after the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) touched down. The agency immediately noticed a problem with power generation, but was able…

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SLIM lander on the Moon’s surface on Jan. 24, 2024. SLIM landed at 13.3160 degrees south latitude, 25.2510 degrees east longitude, at an elevation of minus 2,992 feet (minus 912 meters). The image is 2,887 feet wide (880 meters), and lunar north is up. (LROC NAC frame M14607392143L). Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State UniversityJAXA’s SLIM lunar landing on January 19, 2024, captured by NASA’s LRO, establishes Japan as…

The EnVision mission to Venus was officially adopted by the European Space Agency on Thursday, which means the organization has committed to getting the spacecraft Venus-bound by the early 2030s.NASA Delays Return to Earth's Evil Twin, VenusEnVision is a planned Venus orbiter designed to study the planet from its upper atmosphere to its core. Venus is in many ways a black (or mustard-colored) box for planetary evolution; thought to have formed in similar circumstances to Earth, the world is now hot, seasonless, and…