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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Chang'e-4 update: Both vehicles healthy, new imagery from the Moon’s far side
Everything is going well 9 days after China's Chang'e-4 mission made a historic landing on the far side of the Moon, the country's space program said today.
Chang'e 4: Why the Moon's far side looks red in new images
In Apollo images — and to our own eyes, from Earth — the Moon is grey. What's going on?
Chang'e-4 deploys rover on far side of the Moon
The rover is named Yutu-2, China's space agency announced.
China successfully lands Chang'e-4 on far side of Moon
It’s a space feat no nation has accomplished until now.
Total Immersion in the Heavens
Casey Dreier assesses the significance of the Apollo program on its 50th anniversary.
Chang’e-4 Successfully Enters Lunar Orbit
Following a 4.6-day cruise, on 12 December at 8:45 Beijing time (16:45 UTC), the spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit, preparing for a landing in early January.
Here's (almost) everything you need to know about Israel's Moon lander
SpaceIL, a privately funded Israeli non-profit, will attempt to land a small spacecraft on the Moon in early 2019.
In search of ice and fire: Europa analog fieldwork in Iceland, 2018
The terrain of Iceland – the Land of Ice and Fire – has some very interesting similarities to Europa.
Imaging the Earth from Lunar orbit
Radio amateurs around the world worked together to take an image of the Earth and the far side of the Moon.
NASA Then & Now
A collection of before and after slider images showing how views of planets in our solar system have changed over the years since NASA was created.
The September Equinox 2018 Issue of The Planetary Report Is Out!
With my first issue of The Planetary Report as editor, I am taking the magazine open-access. Return to Mercury features articles by Elsa Montagnon on BepiColombo and by Long Xiao on the Chang'e-4 and -5 landers.
Farside Landing and Nearside Sample Return
Long Xiao previews two ambitious Chinese lunar missions, one of which will make the first-ever landing on the far side of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2
Sriram Bhiravarasu anticipates India’s 2019 lunar venture with an orbiter, lander, and rover.
Chandrayaan-2 launch delayed to 3 January 2019
Chandrayaan-2, expected to launch in October, will now be launching no earlier than 3 January 2019, with its lander and rover touching down in February.
How the Apollo missions transformed our understanding of the Moon’s origin
Where did the Moon come from? The origin of our cosmic neighbor is a fundamental question in planetary science.
Favorite Astro Plots: The Pyroxene Quadrilateral
Petrology is a field of science in which scientists study the compositions of rocks and minerals and interpret their geologic history. A common graph petrologists use is the “pyroxene quadrilateral.” These graphs, like photos of space, can reveal an understanding of the remotest parts of the solar system.
Chinese satellite snags new views of Earth from lunar orbit
See the world through the eyes of Longjiang-2.
Big news from the magnetosphere
At five years and counting, the Van Allen Probes mission continues to reshape our thinking about how Earth’s radiation belts flex and reconfigure under the influence of solar storms.
The curious case of the Apollo 4 Earth images
Revisiting images of Earth taken from the uncrewed Apollo 4 command module in 1967.
How are we preparing astronauts for a return to the Moon?
Returning to the Moon won’t be easy, even though we’ve been there before.