In a rare encounter, two lunar spacecraft crossed paths as they orbited the Moon in opposite directions.
Following a less-than-perfect touchdown, the Odysseus lander has been spotted from lunar orbit while lying on its side on the surface of the Moon. The lunar lander also beamed back its first images from the Moon as it fights to stay alive before it runs out of power.
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.
The summer season has ended, but spaceflight continues to be hot, with new views of our Moon and Jupiter’s moon Io, the much-anticipated return of an astronaut and an asteroid sample, and important new rocket engine tests, to name just a few of the many moments that captured our attention in September.
NASA released a new mosaic of an impact crater that perpetually lies in the shadows of the lunar south pole.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander was spotted on the Moon just a few days after touching down on its cratered surface near the lunar south pole.
NASA’s trusty Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured images revealing a fresh crater on the Moon’s surface. This crater is suspected to be the impact site of the ill-fated Luna 25 mission, Russia’s first lunar attempt in nearly five decades.