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The CAPSTONE team is working to understand the problem and how to fix it. CAPSTONE in its halo-shaped lunar orbit. Artist's illustration of NASA's tiny CAPSTONE probe in its halo-shaped lunar orbit. CAPSTONE is scheduled to arrive at the moon on Nov. 13, 2022, but that future is in doubt; mission team members lost contact with the cubesat shortly after it began flying freely on July 4. (Image credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter) CAPSTONE has gone dark. The 55-pound (25 kilograms) NASA probe ceased communicating with its handlers yesterday (July 4), shortly after it deployed successfully from Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft bus...

China has declared its latest moon mission a success, hailing it as a landmark in its quest to become a strong space power by 2030. The country’s Chang’e-4 probe, named after a moon goddess of Chinese legend, was the world’s first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon, which is not visible from the Earth. The landing on January 3 was the latest leap for Beijing as it tries to catch up with the United States in space. The Chang’e-4 mission did not stop with the historic landing. Here are five other things China’s moon probe has...

Here is what is happening with pit bulls used by law enforcement. The dogs are cherry picked from shelters by Animal Farm Foundation (extreme pit bull advocacy with unlimited funds). The dogs receive a few weeks of training by a professional paid by AFF, The dogs are then given, free of charge, to cash-strapped police departments. Cities that can afford better, obtain bred-for-task dogs, frequently bred and trained in Europe. The traditional police dog has already been extensively trained before it even gets on the plane and gets another 14 weeks training with the new handler in the United States....

Explanation: Tycho crater's central peak complex casts a long, dark shadow near local sunrise in this spectacular lunarscape. The dramatic oblique view was recorded on June 10, 2011 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Shown in amazing detail, boulder strewn slopes and jagged shadows appear in the highest resolution version at 1.5 meters per pixel. The rugged complex is about 15 kilometers wide, formed in uplift by the giant impact that created the well-known ray crater 100 million years ago. The summit of its central peak reaches 2 kilometers above the Tycho crater floor.

LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks. The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it...

A researcher from The University of Western Ontario has helped solve a 37-year old space mystery using lunar images released yesterday by NASA and maps from his own atlas of the moon. Phil Stooke, a professor cross appointed to Western's Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Geography, published a major reference book on lunar exploration in 2007 entitled, "The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration." Yesterday, images and data from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were posted. The LRO, scheduled for a one year exploration mission about 31 miles above the lunar surface, will produce a comprehensive map, search for resources...

"Hey, can you see the flag on the Moon with that thing?" For the last 40 years, every amateur astronomer with a big telescope has heard this countless times. My standard response, ever since I was a teenager, has always been:

"GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has sent back its first images of Apollo lunar landing sites. The agency will release the images Friday, July 17, at noon and hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss the photos and future plans for the LRO mission."

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has beamed back its first snaps of the Moon - images from the Mare Nubium region captured by the spacecraft's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, aka LROC: LROC Principal Investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University explained: "Our first images were taken along the moon's terminator - the dividing line between day and night - making us initially unsure of how they would turn out. Because of the deep shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and inhospitable surface. ... The LROC is in fact three cameras: Two narrow-angle instruments, designed to capture "high-resolution, black-and-white...

The Air Force is preparing to test an unmanned spacecraft in orbit, with a launch scheduled for December. The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth. The vehicle... operates autonomously in orbit and for re-entry and landing. This first orbital flight test of the vehicle will be used to determine the capabilities of the craft, said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Brown. It is part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused...

Explorer89, a very good friend of MrConfettiMan sent me this information to share. Click on the link above to get the pdf of an internal Goddard newsletter that describes the inscription on a reaction wheel that is going to the moon. Joe (FR's MrConfettiMan) wrote the software for the reaction wheel. Joe's article is on page 9. Since the pdf is a bit grainy, the inscription on the wheel is reproduced below: "The life of Joe Vitale ended far too early, but his work will carry on as the United States Space Program returns to the moon. The software Joe...