Category: Moon

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SpaceX launches moon lander, lands booster despite tough conditions

sudshr47 February 22, 2019

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SpaceX had another successful launch on Thursday night, despite some tough conditions.

Its Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where a trio of spacecraft, including a moon lander, came along for the ride.

Lift off took place at 8:45 p.m. ET, at the beginning of the 32-minute launch window.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/Cd8nGQwrhd

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 22, 2019

Bad weather threatened the recovery of the first-stage booster, but after 8-and-a-half minutes following launch, the booster successfully landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Read more…

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Neptune’s smallest moon may have been created by comets

sudshr47 February 21, 2019

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We’re all made of star stuff, but some things in the universe are created by comets.

Neptune’s recently discovered and smallest moon, Hippocamp, has been confirmed and observed in detail by the Hubble Space Telescope according to new research published in Nature on Wednesday.

Named Hippocamp for the half-horse, half-fish creature from Greek mythology — all of Neptune’s moons are named for Greek and Roman mythological figures — it’s the smallest of the planet’s seven inner moons, with a diameter of approximately 20-21 miles (34 kilometres).  Read more…

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Watch the historic first private mission to the Moon launch Thursday night

sudshr47 February 19, 2019

For the first time later this week, a privately developed moon lander will launch aboard a privately built rocket, organized by a private launch coordinator. It’s an historic moment in space and the Israeli mission stands to make history again if it touches down on the Moon’s surface as planned on April 11. The Beresheet […]

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China’s lunar probe makes history by successfully soft-landing on the far side of the moon

sudshr47 January 3, 2019

It’s not Lunar New Year yet, but there is something new on the moon. In a major milestone for space exploration, China announced that its lunar program has successfully soft-landed a probe on the far side of the moon, making it the first one to do so. The historic landing was reported by Xinhua, China’s […]

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NASA wants these private companies to help it get to the moon

sudshr47 November 29, 2018

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NASA has big plans to go back to the moon, and it wants private companies to help them get there.

On Thursday, NASA announced partnerships with nine companies that could fly small payloads to the lunar surface through contracts with the American space agency sometime in the relatively near future. 

The nine companies are: 

  • Astrobotic Technology

  • Deep Space Systems

  • Draper

  • Firefly Aerospace

  • Intuitive Machines

  • Lockheed Martin Space

  • Masten Space Systems

  • Moon Express

  • Orbit Beyonds

NASA plans to award about $2.6 billion over the course of 10 years that these nine companies can compete for.

“The innovation of America’s aerospace companies, wedded with our big goals in science and human exploration, are going to help us achieve amazing things on the Moon and feed forward to Mars,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. Read more…

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3 small moon rocks are coming up for auction. Here’s why.

sudshr47 October 30, 2018

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On September 12, 1970, the Soviet Union landed a robot on the moon. The probe, named Luna 16, drilled into the lunar ground for seven minutes and removed around 100 grams — just over one-fourth of a pound — of small moon rocks and fragments from a wide-volcanic plains named the Sea of Fertility. Then, it blasted off back to Earth.

Now, three tiny lunar fragments from the Luna 16 mission are being auctioned to the highest bidder through Sotheby’s. The current owner of the little bits of moon, however, remains anonymous.

It may seem odd that human-gathered lunar fragments fell into private hands — similar to perhaps a prized Picasso or a van Gogh. Indeed, most moon specimens are kept in closely-guarded environs, like most of NASA’s 842 pounds of treasured lunar material. Read more…

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