Intuitive Machines, the venture-backed startup that went public last year, will send a moon lander to the lunar south pole in 2027 as part of a $ 116.9 million contract awarded by NASA on Thursday. This is NASA’s tenth award under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program; of these, four have gone to Intuitive […]
One busted valve led to the failure of Astrobotic’s $108M Peregrine lunar lander mission
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander failed to reach the moon because of a problem with a single valve in the propulsion system, according to a report on the mission released Tuesday. Company leadership said in a press conference that engineers have redesigned the valve and introduced additional redundancy into the propulsion system of its next lander, […]
Crewed commercial SpaceX mission will traverse the poles like the explorers of old
A new commercial space mission will take off as early as this winter to observe the polar regions from low orbit — the first crewed mission to ever do so. It’s charmingly and anachronistically named Fram2, after the famous icebreaker used by Norwegian national hero Fridtjof Nansen to explore the arctic in the late 19th […]
NASA cancels $450M Viper moon mission, dashing ice prospecting dreams
Rising cost and schedule delays have led NASA to cancel a $ 450 million program to map water ice deposits on the moon, a natural resource that will almost certainly be central to supporting humanity’s long-term presence in the solar system. That program, called Viper — the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — was scheduled […]
Spain's revenge mission on Cole Palmer: Euro 2024 final subplot involving Chelsea and England star
England vs. Spain in the Euro 2024 final promises to be a thriller in Berlin. Gareth Southgate and Luis de la Fuente are hoping to lead their teams to the European title, with Spain aiming for a first major trophy since winning Euro 2012 and England’s wait stretching back to 1966. Both coaches will be […]