lunar lander
Watch ispace attempt to land on the moon for the first time
After five long months journeying through space, ispace’s Hakuto-R lander is ready to greet the lunar surface. The Japanese company is expecting to land Hakuto-R at 9:40 AM Pacific time today. If su
Eyeing a new lunar economy, ispace plans to land on the moon at the end of April
Tokyo-based ispace said Monday that its Hakuto-R lunar lander is on track to reach the moon at the end of April. Ispace launched the lander on board a Falcon 9 in December; since then, the spacecraft
ispace wants to stake its claim to the moon with November launch
Tokyo-based startup ispace’s lunar ambitions will soon be put to the test, as the company gears up for its first launch at the end of this month. The startup will attempt to send its “Hakuto-R”
Intuitive Machines to go public in SPAC deal
Intuitive Machines is going public. The company, which is developing lunar landers and other tech to enable exploration of the moon, said Friday it would list on the Nasdaq after merging with a specia
Senate budget committee tells NASA to select two developers for lunar lander program
The Human Landing System saga is far from over. Senators on Monday released a draft version of the appropriation bill that governs NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2022, directing the agency to select
Suing your way to the stars
Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review! I’m back from a very fun and rehabilitative couple weeks away from my phone, my Twitter account and the news cycle. That said, I actually reall
Feds dismantle Blue Origin and Dynetics protests of NASA’s SpaceX lunar lander award
Blue Origin and Dynetics are still steaming over NASA’s decision to award only one contract — to SpaceX — to build a Human Landing System for the Artemis program. Their protest of the decisi
Masten Space Systems to develop a GPS-like network for the moon
Masten Space Systems, a startup that’s aiming to send a lander to the moon in 2023, will develop a lunar navigation and positioning system not unlike GPS here on Earth. Masten’s prototype is being
Japanese space company ispace aims to send landers to the moon
Tokyo-based ispace has been selected to deliver rovers from Canada and Japan to the lunar surface after they launch aboard SpaceX rockets. The company will use its recently revealed Hakuto-R lander fo
Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander will fly to the moon on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2023
Firefly Aerospace may be developing rockets of its own, but it’s also simultaneously building Blue Ghost, its first lunar lander. Blue Ghost will hop a ride with a rocket from a different launch
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to deliver an Astrobotic lander and NASA water-hunting rover to the moon in 2023
SpaceX is set to send a payload to the moon in 2023, using its larger (and infrequently used) Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. The mission will fly a lander built by space startup Astrobotic, which itself
Blue Origin will upgrade New Shepard rocket with the ability to simulate lunar gravity
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be providing NASA with a valuable scientific tool ahead of the U.S. space agency’s goal of returning to the Moon: The ability to run experiments in simulated l
Intuitive Machines taps SpaceX for second lunar lander mission
The first commercial lunar landers are set to start making their trips to the moon as early as this year, and now another one has a confirmed ride booked: Intuitive Machines is sending its second land
Moon exploration startup ispace opens new US office and hires SpaceX alum to lead development of next lander
Japanese startup ispace, which is developing lander technology to support exploration of the moon, is opening an office in Denver, the company announced today. The Colorado location was chosen because
CMU’s MoonRanger robot rover will be the first to search for water ice on the moon in 2022
Carnegie Mellon University and spin-off space startup Astrobotic are developing a robotic rover to look for water on the moon, and the little bot just passed the crucial preliminary design review phas
Dynetics has built a full-scale test version of its lunar human lander for NASA
One of the three companies chosen by NASA to create a Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA has completed a key step by building a full-scale test article of its lander for its team and NASA to evaluate
Blue Origin’s human lunar lander all-star space team completes first key milestone for moon mission
Blue Origin, along with it partners Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, was one of three companies to be awarded contracts by NASA to develop human lunar landers for future moon missions. Bl
NASA issues new call for lunar payload deliveries from its commercial moon lander partners
NASA wants its private commercial space company partners to make more moon deliveries on its behalf: The agency just issued another request for scientific and experimental payloads that need lunar del
SpaceX will launch Masten’s first lander to the moon in 2022
SpaceX has secured a contract to act as the launch partner for Masten Space Systems, one of the companies awarded a NASA launch contract under that agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CL
Blue Origin’s human lunar lander team delivers full-scale engineering mock-up to NASA
Blue Origin and the members of its “national team” — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper — have delivered a full-scale engineering prototype of their human lunar lande