Posts Tagged ‘Moon’
NASA cheers SpaceX Starship test as lunar deadline looms
NASA leaders cheered SpaceX’s successful fifth Starship test flight on Oct. 13, which demonstrated capabilities the agency plans to use when it returns astronauts to the Moon.
Read MoreFacing safety, budget concerns, NASA delays Artemis Moon missions
With budget cuts on the horizon and technical hurdles to vault before astronauts return to the Moon, NASA pushed the brakes on its Artemis program launch schedule Tuesday, delaying a planned lunar fly-by mission into 2025 and its planned landing into 2026. The agency cited safety concerns for the delay, including an ongoing investigation into problems with a heatshield, which was damaged when the uncrewed Artemis I capsule re-entered Earth’s atmosphere after a 2022 test flight. The move also comes as congressional negotiators mull slimming the agency’s budget by more than $500 million from its 2023, and $2.2 billion short of NASA’s 2024 budget request.
Read MoreIndia P.M. calls safe landing of lunar probe ‘Dawn of a New Era’
Space workers in India celebrated the landing of their Chandrayaan-3 probe, making it the fourth nation to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon, and had their efforts lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India is on the Moon,” Modi boomed in a broadcast to India’s 1.4 billion residents.
Read MoreAs Russia, India reach for Moon, NASA supporters work to stop budget cuts
As India and Russia race to land spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, America’s space agency is staring down proposed budget cuts. India’s Chandrayaan-3 is poised to make a soft lunar landing, which would make the nation one of only four spacefaring powers to ever place a payload safely on the lunar surface.
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