NASA’s diligent lunar orbiter transmitted a laser beam to a dome-shaped aluminum device the size of a billiard ball on India’s Vikram lander, pinging its location on the Moon. This laser-enabled technique could one day help NASA astronauts find their way on the lunar surface.
For millennia, our species looked at the Moon as a place that would forever be beyond our reach, but 20th-century technologies finally made our natural satellite accessible to probes, landers, and even human explorers. Despite these achievements, however, the Moon has furiously resisted our overtures, whether it be…
Experimental rockets, Moon landers, planetary flybys, breathtaking spacewalks, and vintage boosters—these are just a few of the many stories that contributed to the most striking and memorable images of 2023.
Following an eventful lunar day, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has been put to sleep to wait out the dreadful darkness of the Moon’s nighttime.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is aiming for a landing spot on the lunar south pole, hoping to make history as the nation’s first successful touchdown on the cratered surface.
India’s space agency is gearing up for a lunar touchdown, hoping to stick the landing this time after a failed first attempt nearly four years ago.
Update: July 14, 9:17 a.m. ET: India’s LVM3 rocket blasted off from Sriharikota at 2:35 p.m. local time, sending the lander on a trajectory that will take it to the Moon.
