Space exploration
Exploration of space
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We include updates on Apollo program, Artemis program, Moon landing, List of missions to the Moon, A Wrinkle in Time, Rendezvous with Rama, Mickey7, Lunar Roving Vehicle, Project A119, From the Earth to the Moon, International Lunar Research Station, Fallen Astronaut, Tranquility Base, Chang'e 6, Constellation program, Moonbase ... and more.
| 2025 |
International Lunar Research Station
Completion of Phase 1: Reconnaissance, which includes selecting potential lunar site(s) for the International Lunar Research Station and verifying landing technologies.
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| 2025 | Artemis II mission is scheduled to complete a crewed flyby of the Moon. |
| 2025 | BepiColombo mission, a joint collaboration between Japan and the European Space Agency, is scheduled to arrive at Mercury, carrying two probes to gather complementary scientific data. |
| March 2025 |
Argonaut
ESA and JAXA signed a statement of intent for potential cooperation, including collaboration on the Argonaut lunar lander and Japanese pressurised rover for the Artemis program.
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| March 2025 | Ma held a meeting with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai regarding Thailand's deportation of 40 Uyghurs to China. |
| March 14 2025 |
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission
The union cabinet received the LUPEX mission report, with project approval anticipated. ISRO teams began hardware design and development, and started work on a heavier lander engine.
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| 2025 |
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
Astrobotic Technology's Griffin Mission 1 planned, targeting Nobile Crater and carrying FLIP rover from Venturi Astrolab.
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| March 13 2025 |
Moon landing
Intuitive Machines disclosed that the Athena's altimeter failed during landing, causing the spacecraft to strike a plateau, tip over, and skid across the lunar surface, rolling once or twice before settling inside a crater. The impact kicked up regolith that coated the solar panels in dust.
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| March 13 2025 |
Lunar lander
Intuitive Machines revealed that the Athena altimeter failed during landing, causing the spacecraft to strike a plateau, tip over, and skid across the lunar surface, rolling once or twice before settling inside a crater.
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| March 13 2025 |
Moon landing
Intuitive Machines reveals that the IM-2 Athena's altimeter failed during landing, causing the spacecraft to strike a plateau, tip over, and skid across the lunar surface, rolling once or twice before settling inside a crater.
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| 2025 |
Artemis program
NASA plans to use the pressurized rover from Artemis VII mission, with an anticipated 10-year operational lifespan for lunar exploration.
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| March 12 2025 |
Orbital
Publication of a translation with ISBN 9788383602028
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| 2025 |
Artemis program
A ship-to-ship propellant transfer demonstration is expected to further prove Starship's capability as an orbital propellant depot.
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| 2025 |
IM-2
Potential first NASA attempt to robotically sample and analyze lunar ice below the surface near Shackleton Crater at the lunar south pole.
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| 2025 | Space Applications Services is part of a European aerospace consortium awarded a one-year contract by ESA to study a lunar lander mission proposal focused on demonstrating in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) by mining lunar regolith and extracting resources. |
| 2025 |
Space dust measurement
Launch of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) carrying the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX), developed by Mihaly Horanyi and colleagues at LASP, to study dust particles in orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point.
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| 2025 |
Moon landing
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program plans to launch first of three additional Chang'e uncrewed missions between 2025 and 2028.
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| 2025 |
Moon landing
ISRO and JAXA plan to launch the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission, a robotic space mission to explore the Moon's south pole region.
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| 2025 |
Exploration Systems Architecture Study
The ESAS estimated the total cost of the crewed lunar program through 2025 at $217 billion, which was initially proposed to be funded within NASA's existing budget without significant program cuts.
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| 2025 |
Commercial Lunar Payload Services
NASA extended the CLPS program to support large payload missions, expanding the program's capabilities and scope for lunar exploration.
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| 2025 |
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission
ISRO has fully re-engineered the lander, developing a new engine at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) that will be used for future crewed lunar landing missions and tested during the LUPEX mission.
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| 2025 |
IM-2
Lunar Outpost will send their first lunar rover, the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), to collect lunar samples for NASA under a symbolic $1 contract.
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| 2025 |
IM-2
IM plans to deploy the μNova (Micro-Nova) Hopper, a standalone hopper lander designed to explore difficult-to-reach areas on the lunar surface, including deep craters, in search of lunar ice.
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| 2025 |
IM-2
A 4G cellular connectivity demonstration will be conducted in partnership with Nokia Bell Labs and NASA, using a Network-In-a-Box to connect the Nova-C lander with the MAPP rover and Micro-Nova Hopper.
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| March 10 2025 |
IM-2
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) imaged the Athena lander again at a more oblique angle.
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| March 7 2025 |
IM-2
NASA confirmed that lander operations ended at 1:15 AM, concluding the mission less than 13 hours after landing.
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| March 7 2025 |
IM-2
Intuitive Machines announced the conclusion of the IM-2 mission, with teams beginning to assess the collected mission data.
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| March 7 2025 |
IM-2
Mission concluded after Athena's power was fully depleted, with no expected recovery. The spacecraft was unable to complete its planned scientific investigations of lunar water ice using PRIME-1 payload and the Micro Nova Hopper drone Grace.
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| March 6 2025 |
Lunar lander
Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar lander landed at Mons Mouton, but was found intact but resting on its side, complicating its science and technology demonstration mission.
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| March 6 2025 |
Moon landing
IM-2 Athena landed on the lunar surface, but was resting on its side, which complicated its planned science and technology demonstration mission, similar to the outcome of the company's previous IM-1 Odysseus spacecraft in 2024.
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| March 6 2025 |
IM-2
Scheduled lunar landing attempt planned for 17:31 UTC.
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| March 6 2025 |
IM-2
Athena lunar lander reached the Moon's surface at 17:28:50 UTC, experiencing temporary communication loss and landing challenges, including incorrect spacecraft orientation and partial radio antenna failure.
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| 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
Germany's OHB and Israel's IAI propose a commercial LSAS lander mission, planned to rideshare with a Geostationary satellite.
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| 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
Brazil's Airvantis plans to launch Garatéa-L, a proposed lunar CubeSat in partnership with UKSA and ESA.
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| 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
United States' Parsec plans to launch lunar communication satellite constellation.
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| 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
Israel SpaceIL plans to launch Beresheet 2, a lunar mission consisting of one orbiter and two landers.
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| 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
SpaceX plans an uncrewed Starship HLS demo mission to demonstrate lunar landing capabilities.
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| March 2025 |
Missions to the Moon
Blue Origin launches Mark 1 Pathfinder Mission with Blue Moon lander, first mission to prove the viability of the Blue Moon platform and BE-7 engine, with a cargo capacity of up to 3000kg.
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| March 3 2025 |
Lunar probes
Epic Aerospace's Chimera-1 space tug mission encounters potential communication failure during planned Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) to Geosynchronous orbit.
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| March 3 2025 |
Lunar probes
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer orbiter mission experiences a failure during its lunar orbit mission aimed at studying lunar water.
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| March 3 2025 |
Lunar probes
AstroForge's Brokkr-2 asteroid probe experiences communication failure during its planned flyby of near-Earth asteroid 2022 OB5.
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| March 3 2025 |
Lunar probes
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer orbiter mission and AstroForge's Brokkr-2 asteroid probe both experience communication failures during their missions.
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| March 3 2025 |
IM-2
Mission confirmed on track for lunar orbital insertion.
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| March 2025 |
International Lunar Research Station
Chang'e 6 orbiter leaves L2 orbit for a solar orbit.
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| March 2 2025 |
Lunar lander
Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed on the lunar surface in Mare Crisium.
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| March 2 2025 |
Moon landing
Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its lunar lander carrying NASA-sponsored experiments and commercial payloads in Mare Crisium at Mons Latreille.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Space exploration, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, Space Applications Services, Ma Xingrui, Argonaut (lunar lander), Artemis program, Lunar lander, Space dust measurement, Exploration Systems Architecture Study, International Lunar Research Station, List of lunar probes, Moon landing, Orbital (novel), List of missions to the Moon, IM-2 & Lunar Polar Exploration Mission, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.