Category: astronomy

India’s space agency has released images of the far side of the Moon as its third lunar mission attempts to locate a safe landing spot near the little-explored south pole. The pictures have been taken by Vikram, Chandrayaan-3’s lander, which began the last phase of its mission on Thursday. Vikram, which carries a rover in…

By Emma Saunders Entertainment reporter This year’s Super Bowl was watched by an average of 123.4 million people in the US, making it the most watched broadcast since the 1969 Moon landing. Preliminary US TV ratings put Sunday’s game just behind Apollo 11’s historic landing, which was seen by an estimated 125 to 150 million…

Japan’s space agency Jaxa has made its first soft Moon landing with an unmanned spacecraft. Jaxa attempted the nail-biting 20 minute landing at 15:30 GMT on Friday and live streamed the event on YouTube. Only half of all attempts to land on the Moon have ever succeeded. The live stream appeared to show the spacecraft,…

Texan company Intuitive Machines (IM) will attempt to put a spacecraft on the Moon in the coming hours. If the firm succeeds, it will be the first ever commercial venture to achieve the feat. It would also represent the first American soft landing on the lunar surface since the Apollo era just over half a…

An American company has made history by becoming the first commercial outfit to put a spacecraft on the Moon. Houston-based Intuitive Machines landed its Odysseus robot near the lunar south pole. It took some minutes for controllers to establish that the craft was down, but eventually a signal was received. “What we can confirm, without…

By Greg Brosnan BBC News Climate and Science Japan’s Moon lander has survived the harsh lunar night, the country’s space agency said on Monday. “Last night, a command was sent to #SLIM and a response received,” Jaxa said on X, formerly Twitter. The craft was put into sleep mode after an awkward landing in January…