Update: January 8, 10:41 a.m. ET: Vulcan Centaur took off right on schedule, successfully blasting off from the Cape Canaveral launch pad and delivering Peregrine on its historic mission to the Moon.
A Martian moons mission, a plethora of private lunar landers, probes to Venus and Jupiter, and reusable heavy-lift rocket tests are among the many highlights we’ll be watching in the coming 12 months, in what looks to be an extraordinary year in spaceflight. Here’s your 2024 calendar.
A new payload has been added to Firefly’s upcoming mission to the far side of the Moon, one that will explore the lunar subsurface to find out if it can support future infrastructure.
From its new headquarters in the U.S., Tokyo-based startup ispace will develop its Apex 1.0 lunar lander to transport NASA payloads to the Moon in 2026.
Update: September 7, 9:06 a.m. ET: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has succeeded in launching the H-IIA rocket, which blasted off yesterday from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
Intuitive Machines is gearing up for the launch of its mission to the Moon, hoping to become the first private space venture to land on the lunar surface. The company recently stated that its lunar lander would be ready to fly in September, with plans to launch the Nova-C lander to the Moon in November.
After NASA’s Moon-faring, water-hunting probe faced an untimely demise before it was ever able to reach its final destination, mission scientists have officially declared that clogged propellant lines led to the mission’s failure.
A second stage engine destined for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Epsilon S rocket exploded during a test on Friday, spewing fire and smoke, and severely damaging the test facility, located in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, in northeastern Japan. It’s yet another setback for Japan’s suddenly-floundering spaceflight…
Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
The Hakuto-R spacecraft won’t land on the Moon until April, but the private mission is already in the record books.