Friday / 3 October 2025

Europe Moves Forward with International Collaboration on Moon Missions for Exploration, Monitoring, Mining

Airbus (Netherlands / France, with German / USA / China / Canada offices) supplies European Service Module for Artemis II Orion spacecraft, providing life-support, avionics, solar power, propulsion; ESA Argonaut lunar lander planned to launch NET 2031; Blue Origin (USA / Luxembourg) teams with Luxembourg government / ESRIC / GOMSpace to create Oasis-1 orbiter to map water ice / H3 / rare minierals, before sending Blue Alchemist mining rig; Space Applications Services (Belgium) designing 300kg rover; ispace Europe awaits ESA approval for MAGPIE 30kg rover to analyze subsurface geology, hydrogen forms, et al

Image Credits: Airbus, Blue Origin, NASA

Friday / 22 August 2025

Artemis 2 Lunar Flyby Set to Make History Taking 1st Woman to Moon NLT April 2026 (NET Feb 2026)

Christina Koch—1st woman to Moon vicinity—on epic fly-by alongside Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen in Orion spacecraft as soon as 6 months from now; all are training rigorously, mastering simulators, suit-ups, life-support, spash-downs; global unity shines, with Hansen from Canada and European Service Module of Orion built in Germany with components from 10 countries to provide propulsion, power, thermal control and life support via 33 thrusters, 4 solar arrays, 11 km of wiring and 8600 kg of fuel just loaded, ready to perform trans-lunar injection burn to send Orion around the Moon after ~US$4B SLS launch, with Artemis 3 mid-2027 to set boots on the Moon of 1st woman

Image Credits: NASA  

Tuesday / 29 July 2025

IM Re-Sets 3rd Landing to 2026, Pushing Forward on LTV, International Collaboration

Intuitive Machines (IM) is networking / outreaching internationally, working with companies in Norway, Germany, Hungary, and inspiring Mohamed Al Aseeri, CEO of Bahrain Space Agency, who signed the Artemis Accords for his country with goals of global collaboration / staying apprised of lunar tech; IM will add NASA-chosen Infrared Spectrometer (AIRES) developed at ASU Tempe and Microwave Spectrometer (L-MAPS) developed at UH Manoa to its Lunar Terrain Vehicle competing for NASA award to be announced NLT 31 Dec; IM CTO Tim Crain expects full IM-3 success via redundant laser rangefinders, lunar crater maps, 12 pre-landing orbits

Credits: NASA, IM

Friday / 25 April 2025

China National Space Agency Shares Moon ‘Wealth’ with International Scientists

Zhongde Shan, CNSA Director, announced 24 April, China Space Day that 7 applicants are awarded lunar regolith samples from Chang’E-5 for scientific research; awardees are Institute of Geophysics of Paris (France), University of Cologne (Germany), Osaka University (Japan), Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission of Pakistan, Open University of United Kingdom, Brown University of United States and Stony Brook University of State University of New York, with 5 signing “Lunar Sample Loan Agreement” that day; Shan emphasizes China lunar exploration program follows principles of equality, mutual benefit, peaceful use and cooperative success

Credits: CNSA, IPGP, U of Cologne, The Open U, Brown U, Osaka U, Stony Brook, SUPARCO; Dir. Zhongde photo courtesy Harbin U