CislunarCivilMoon

Artemis I Splashes Down

Artemis I is complete. At 12:40pm ET yesterday, the Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific, marking the end of its 26-day, 1.4-million-mile journey around the Moon and back again. By all accounts, the first mission in NASA’s grand return to the Moon went smoothly. SLS, the agency’s long-awaited (and over-budget) Moon rocket launched on […]

CislunarMoonParallaxQ&A

Lessons from Artemis: A Q&A with Former NASA Astronaut Jim Reilly

NASA’s triumphant return to the Moon has begun.  Right now, Artemis I is coming to an end, as the Orion capsule hurtles back from lunar orbit for a planned splashdown this weekend. Over the next few years, NASA is planning to lay the groundwork to prepare for long-haul trips to Mars. There’s a lot of […]

CislunarLaunch

ispace Prepares to Launch Lunar Lander

There’s about to be a new Moon mission in play. SpaceX is set to launch the HAKUTO-R mission from Cape Canaveral, beginning a small Japanese company’s long journey to softly place a lander on the lunar surface.  The Falcon 9 launch for ispace scrubbed early this morning to take extra precautions before liftoff, and has […]

CislunarCivilTechnology

ICON Wins NASA Contract for Lunar 3D Printing

Within a decade, a startup known for building cheap 3D-printed houses on Earth is hoping to bring the materials cost for building structures on the lunar surface down to zero. Austin-based ICON said this morning that it won a $57.2M Phase III SBIR award from NASA that will bring its 3D printing technology all the […]

CislunarCivilScience

Artemis I Cubesats Fail to Power Up

Since launching on November 16, the Artemis I core mission has gone off practically without a hitch (unless you count damage to the elevator doors near the pad as a vital loss). SLS successfully carried the Orion capsule out of the Earth’s atmosphere and sent it on its trajectory to the Moon, where it made […]

Cislunar

White House Releases First National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released its first National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy on Thursday. The document lays out a whole-of-government R&D plan for American science and technology leadership, in service of “responsible, peaceful, and sustainable exploration and utilization of cislunar space, including the Moon.” Cislunar, what? OSTP defines […]

CislunarMilitaryTechnology

Lockheed Martin Holds “Destination: Space 2050” Event in DC

Advanced tech can only do as much as the policies that regulate it allow, Lockheed Martin’s space chief said Thursday at an event to sell Washington officials on the moon habitats, in-space manufacturing, and smart cities that the company predicts will be commonplace by 2050. “The goal really is to start a dialogue and think […]

CislunarEquities

Intuitive Machines Announces Plans to Go Public

Space SPACs…are still alive! Houston-headquartered Intuitive Machines said today that it intends to go public, by merging early next year with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp ($IPAX). Assuming the two can take the transaction to the finish line, upon de-SPAC, the lunar lander startup will be listed on the Nasdaq.  Key #s The transaction will generate […]