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Japan's Moon lander ended up on its nose when it made its historic touchdown on the lunar surface. A US lunar lander has "no chance" of making a soft landing on the Moon due to a fuel leak. We've set foot on the Moon multiple times. So why all the recent mission failures?

Artist's concept of the SLIM landerJAXA VIEW 1 IMAGES Japan has become the fifth nation to successfully land on the Moon, but the Champagne corks aren't popping. At 10:20 am EST, the SLIM lander touched down, but the solar panels failed to engage, leaving the craft with only a few hours of battery power. Coming hard on the fiery end of America's Peregrine 1 lunar landing mission, JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission garnered a good deal of attention. Not only was Japan making another attempt at a Moon landing, but it was attempting to do so specifically...

In the image, the moon is perfectly aligned with the peak of Monviso, the highest mountain in the Cottian Alps, and the Basilica of Superga's dome, which is situated near Turin. In a rare feat, an Italian photographer captured a "one-in-a-million" lunar alignment shot that has gone viral on social media and left netizens mesmerised. The photographer from Italy's Turin, Valerio Minato, captured the extraordinary photo of the moon, which also earned him NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" award in December. In the image, the moon is perfectly aligned with the peak of Monviso, the highest mountain in the...

Prince Harry is to be inducted alongside Apollo 11 hero Buzz Aldrin as a 'living legend' of aviation at a glitzy Beverly Hills ceremony hosted by John Travolta. The Duke of Sussex, 39, has been recognised ahead of the likes of Charles Duke - who became the youngest person to walk on the moon in 1972 when he was aged 36. The decorated event will be hosted by John Travolta and has been previously been dubbed by actor Morgan Freeman as the Oscars of aviation. It is understood that his work with setting up the Invictus Games Foundation will also...

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The company that had hoped to be the first private one to put a lunar lander on the moon now is looking ahead to its next space mission after confirming the failure of its Peregrine spacecraft on Tuesday. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic's Peregrine -- the first American spacecraft bound for the surface of the moon in more than 50 years -- launched flawlessly early Monday morning but experienced an "anomaly" shortly after it deployed from its launch rocket. The craft then quickly experienced a "critical loss of propellant." On Tuesday, the company said the craft had been operational...

The United States is pushing back its planned return of astronauts to the surface of the Moon from 2025 to 2026, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday amid technical challenges and delays. Artemis, named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, was officially announced in 2017 as part of the US space agency's plans to establish a sustained presence on Earth's nearest space neighbor, and apply lessons learned there for a future mission to Mars. Its first mission, an uncrewed test flight to the Moon and back called Artemis 1, took place in 2022, after several postponements. Artemis 2,...

A towering new rocket has taken flight, carrying what could be the first commercial lander to touch down on the moon — and the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States since 1972. The Vulcan Centaur rocket, a never-before-flown model developed by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, roared to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday. The launch vehicle soared through space for nearly an hour, expending its fuel as it ripped away from Earth’s gravity and sent the lunar lander, called Peregrine, on...

The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed to space Monday, but trouble seems to be already afoot. The private lunar lander launched from the US this morning appears to have suffered an ‘anomaly’ – with experts trying to tackle the problem. Peregrine Mission-1 – which took off on a new massive Vulcan rocket – aims to become the first US spacecraft to land on the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972; everything appeared to go well as it lifted off into space as planned. Associated Press reported: “But about seven hours after liftoff, Astrobotic Technology...

The company behind America's latest mission to soft-land on the Moon is battling to save the project. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic says its Peregrine spacecraft has a faulty propulsion system, which, unless fixed, will prevent a lunar touch-down. The problem has already made it difficult for the craft to point its solar panels at the Sun to generate electricity. Astrobotic is already talking about changing its mission goals. The 1.2-tonne lander was launched early on Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Vulcan rocket. It is aiming to become the first American mission in half a century to make a controlled landing...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies on a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other customers. Astrobotic Technology’s lander caught a ride on a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. The Vulcan streaked through the Florida predawn sky, putting the spacecraft on a roundabout route to the moon that should culminate with an attempted landing on Feb. 23. “So, so, so excited. We are on our way to the moon!” Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said. The Pittsburgh company aims to be the...

MADISON, Wis. -- Monday morning, the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972 will launch from Cape Canaveral, and one longtime Madison resident will be on it. Paul Wertsch and his wife Kay Heggestad always loved space. "Kay especially was a Star Trek person," Paul said. "We went down to Cape Canaveral, watched a lot of rockets." In fact, Paul remembers watching the first ever moon landing with Kay by his side. "She and I were both medical students, and we were doing a rotation up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin," Paul said. "I...

The speaker is Eugene "Gene" Cernan an American astronaut who was the last person to walk on the Moon during NASA's Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. My team recorded this interview in 1994. Cernan's first spaceflight was as the pilot of the Gemini 9A mission in June 1966. He served as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 10 in May 1969, a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Cernan and his fellow crew members flew to within 9.7 miles of the lunar surface but did not land. Cernan's most significant achievement came...

Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren has asked NASA to delay a scheduled launch to the Moon that could include cremated remains. Nygren says he recently learned of the Jan. 8 launch of the Vulcan Centaur carrying the Peregrine Mission One. The lander will carry some payloads from a company known to provide memorial services by shipping human cremated remains to the Moon. Nygren wants the launch delayed and the tribe consulted immediately. He noted the Moon is sacred to numerous Indigenous cultures and that depositing human remains on it is “tantamount to desecration.” NASA previously came under fire after the...

Renowned ufologist Scott Waring recently made an intriguing claim regarding photographs taken during the American lunar mission Apollo 17, suggesting the presence of a peculiar portal from which a UFO emerged. According to Waring, images documented during the December 7 to 19, 1972 Apollo 17 mission, and available on NASA’s official website, unveiled an enigmatic portal. This portal allegedly served as an emergence point for an unidentified flying object (UFO). Waring asserts that a video recording of the event supports his assertions. In the images, an oval-shaped portal emitting a vibrant blue-violet light appeared directly on the lunar surface. From...

A recording of the Apollo 8 astronauts reading from the book of Genesis.

Neither the United States nor its space agency NASA have so far commented on the AI analysis that questioned the Moon Landing by the American astronauts.[Google AI anslysis found that the U.S. Moon photos are fake, but thought images captured by Chines lunar rover are fine.]Moscow: The analysis of some of the photos and images of the U.S. astronauts landing on the Moon using neural networks showed they are fake, Vladimir Putin was told at “Artificial Intelligence World Tour" in Moscow, and the Russian President found it interesting.The video of the analysis result and conversation of the Russian President with...

On Monday, Nov. 27, look east in the evening to see the full "Beaver Moon" rise into the sky. ... at 4:16 a.m. EST on Nov. 27 — and will rise in the east at dusk, shining all night and setting in the west at dawn. To the casual stargazer, the moon will also appear full the night before and after... The best time to see any phase of the moon — and particularly the full moon — is at moonrise and moonset. When the moon is very low on the horizon, viewers on Earth see it through a lot...

The US has a good head start on China when it comes to plans to send astronauts to the moon (or back to the moon in our case). But while the Chinese schedule appears to be moving ahead smoothly, the US schedule has been slipping thanks to regulatory issues. China’s last moon mission, the Chang’e-5, landed on the moon in 2020 and returned samples to the earth. It’s next mission, expected to launch next year, will do the same thing but this time the samples will come from the far side of the moon. That will be followed by two...

David Copperfield is taking his powers of illusion to the stars. In an interview with "Today," the magician announced the plans for his latest stunt. "I’m going to make the moon disappear," he said. "It’s taken 30 years of work, that’s literally 30 years of our lives to develop it," he said. "And there’s multiple methods to make it work, and I’m collaborating with Save the Children, an amazing organization to show the world the difference one person can make." He continued, "If one person can make the moon disappear from the sky, imagine how together we can make poverty...

Explanation: What's happened to the Moon? Within the last day, part of the Moon moved through the Earth's shadow. This happens about once or twice a year, but not every month since the Moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted. Pictured here, the face of a full Hunter's Moon is shown twice from Italy during this partial lunar eclipse. On the left, most of the Moon appears overexposed except for the eclipsed bottom right, which shows some familiar lunar surface details. In contrast, on the right, most of the (same) Moon appears normally exposed, with the exception of the...