The far side of the Moon sees its share of sunlight – it’s dark only in the sense that it’s mysterious because it’s never visible from Earth. Here’s why.
There is currently no launch vehicle capable of launching astronauts to the moon in one go.
President Richard M. Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet, the recovery ship for the mission, where they are quarantined. From left to right: Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin.
NASA
Objects left on the Moon are not just abandoned rockets and rovers. There is a lot of historic and sentimental memorabilia. Some of it hints at a mission that the first Moonwalkers almost forgot.
Artist’s concept of Beresheet on the lunar surface.
Oshratsl / Wikimedia Commons
The private space race is about to take another great leap as Israel sends a private lander to the moon.
Earthrise: astronauts aboard Apollo 8 captured this spectacular photo of Earth rising above the lunar horizon as they emerged from behind the dark side of the Moon.
Image Credit: NASA
After the first moon landing, the feelings that propelled a unified national mission quickly dissipated. Could Armstrong have played a bigger role in galvanizing the public for future projects?
A Falcon 9 SpaceX heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb. 6, 2018.
AP Photo/ John Raoux
It has been 10 years since Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the commercial space age. What hurdles must be overcome before private companies begin exploring, colonizing and mining other planets?
The moon is our closest neighbour and our best hope for building capacity to explore space.
Edwin E. ‘Buzz’ Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.
Neil A. Armstrong/NASA/AP Photo
Fifty years ago, on July 20, 1969, American astronauts planted a US flag on the moon. A space lawyer explains the implications, who owns the moon, and what it means for lunar mining.
Rocket Lab successfully launched its Electron rocket from the company’s complex on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab
There are plenty of astronomical things to watch out for this year beyond this week’s lunar eclipse, including new Moon landings and a space station falling back to Earth.
Rational arguments and myth busting often won’t help you change the mind of a conspiracy theorist. But there are other ways.
A view from the ‘Kimberley’ formation on Mars taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
We could learn a lot from any mission to send people to Mars, such as whether there’s life elsewhere in the universe or even the technology for new household appliances.
Often eclipsed by Apollo 11, the final manned moonshot left far more than bootprints in the dust. In these troubling times, it also left us with a lasting message of hope.
Who will preserve the first lunar landing site at Tranquility Base for future generations? It seems an odd question given the fact that this extraordinary archaeological site was created on July 21, 1969…