Articles

The Downlink

Everything you need to celebrate the Moon this week, plus a way you can help NASA thrive in 2021.

Kate Howells

When you think about how the Moon looks in the night sky, you might never have considered that it looks different to people in other parts of the world. But really, perspective is all relative.

The Downlink

Wrap your head around orientations in space, and learn the latest in space exploration news.

Cheyenne Polius

Picking out your first telescope can be overwhelming. This easy-to-follow guide will help you find the best telescope that you'll actually use.

The Downlink

The week’s space news, plus your guide to the night sky and ways you can contribute to Venus science.

Emily Lakdawalla

It's a banner year for sample return missions. In 2020, China, Japan, and the United States are all scheduled to have sample return missions in flight, seeking to retrieve material from near-Earth asteroids, the Moon, and eventually Mars.

The Planetary Society

Six scientists share the major planetary science discoveries of the past decade, and the questions that will drive the next 10 years of solar system exploration.

Casey Dreier

New legislation proposed in the House of Representatives would radically shift NASA's human spaceflight efforts away from the Moon and back to Mars.

Jason Davis

Communications were lost with the lander, which was carrying a small rover named Pragyan to the lunar surface.

Jason Davis

The combination lander, rover, and orbiter fired its main engine to enter orbit around the Moon at 09:02 IST (03:32 UTC) on 20 August.

Jason Davis

At 02:21 IST (20:51 UTC), the spacecraft fired its main engine, changing its orbit to intersect with the Moon.

Andrew Jones

Don’t worry, this was a planned end for a tiny satellite that has been a huge success.

Jatan Mehta

Liftoff atop the country’s GSLV Mk III rocket occurred on 22 July at 14:43 IST (09:13 UTC).

Jason Davis

PlanetVac, a technology that simplifies the process of collecting samples from other worlds, may fly to the Moon.

Sridhar Narayanan

A preview guide for India's upcoming Moon mission.

Emily Lakdawalla

So many Apollo-related books have come out in the first half of 2019 that I decided to cover them in a special summer book-recommendation blog. I have 5 brand-new Apollo-related books to recommend for kids, and include others I've recommended in past years.

Mike Constantine

Apollo 11’S landing on 20 July 1969 was the day humans first set foot on another world. For the risky, challenging endeavor, NASA sought a smooth landing site, one lacking craters or mountains.

Emily Lakdawalla

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully imaged the impact site of the Beresheet lander, which made a really good run at performing the first privately funded Moon landing on 11 April, but crashed after the failure of its main engine.

Andrew Jones

The first science results from the unprecedented Chang’e-4 lunar far side mission are in. The mission’s Yutu-2 rover, deployed from the lander shortly after the Chang’e-4 landing on 3 January, has, with the help of the Queqiao relay satellite, returned data which suggests it has discovered material derived from the Moon’s mantle.

Emily Lakdawalla

According to amateur spacecraft tracker Daniel Estévez, Longjiang-2 will crash into the Moon on 31 July after more than a year in lunar orbit.