2nd rocket competitor in simulated lunar landing contest calls off mission at halfway point

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - With an instrument aboard India's Chandryaan discovering water molecules on the Moon, scientists are now all the more confident of harvesting water from the lunar surface in the future, which could help sustain lunar astronauts and even propel missions to Mars. Three spacecraft - India's Chandrayaan-1 and NASA's Cassini and Deep Impact probes - have detected the absorption of infrared light at a wavelength that indicates the presence of either water or hydroxyl, a molecule made up of a hydrogen and an oxygen atom.

September 16th, 2009 Rockets vie in simulated lunar landing contestLOS ANGELES — A privately built rocket vying for NASA prize money lifted off in the Mojave Desert and flew half of a simulated lunar lander mission Wednesday before an engine problem forced its developers to call off the attempt until next month. The flight of Masten Space Systems' unmanned "Xombie" at Mojave Air and Space Port comes just days after another competitor, Armadillo Aerospace, qualified for the $1 million top prize with two flights in Texas.

September 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA has concluded two weeks of technology development tests on two of the agency's prototype lunar rovers. "These tests provide us with crucial information about how our cutting edge vehicles perform in field situations approximating the moon," said Rob Ambrose, Human Robotic Systems project lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

September 2nd, 2009 PANAJI - In a considerable downer for space conspiracy theorists, Chandrayaan-1's terrain-mapper camera has recorded images of the landing site of US spaceship Apollo 15 and tracks of its lunar rovers that were used by astronauts to travel on moon's surface nearly four decades ago, a scientist said Wednesday. Prakash Chauhan of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the images captured by the hyper-spectral camera on board Chandrayaan-1 debunked conspiracy theories that have claimed that the Apollo 15, the fourth US mission to land on the moon was a hoax.

July 20th, 2009 Researchers: Still learning from moon rocksST. LOUIS — Forty years after the Apollo 11 astronauts made their historic lunar landing, the rocks they collected are still helping researchers learn about the moon and the solar system.

July 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - 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.

July 17th, 2009 Apollo 11 lunar navigation chart sells for $218KNEW YORK — A navigational chart used by Apollo 11 astronauts became the unexpected star of an auction on Thursday marking the 40th anniversary of man's first lunar landing. The circular lunar surface chart, which is 9 inches in diameter and consists of two sheets of plastic, sold for a stellar $218,000, according to Bonhams New York.

July 16th, 2009 NYC to auction off Apollo 11 itemsNEW YORK — Marking the 40th anniversary of man's first lunar landing, more than 50 items related to the Apollo 11 mission are to go on the auction block Thursday. Bonhams New York said many of the articles were acquired directly from the astronauts or were originally in their collections.

July 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Thanks to a NASA website, people around the world would now be able to hear conversations between the crew of the Apollo 11 mission, which were done when the microphone was off. As Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins flew on Apollo 11 to a lunar landing in July 1969, the world heard communications between the crew and Mission Control live as they happened.

June 24th, 2009 NASA's new moon probe sends back moon shotsCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's new lunar probe launched less than a week ago has already sent back some shots of the moon.

June 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA will take a giant step toward bringing humans back to the moon Tuesday as a new orbiting satellite arrives there to search for water. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is expected to reach the moon's orbit at 0943 (GMT).

June 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has successfully entered orbit around the moon after a four and a half day journey from the Earth. Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, confirmed the spacecraft's lunar orbit insertion at 6:27 a.m.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which will hunt for water on the Moon, launched aboard an Atlas V rocket on June 18. The satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, will relay more information about the lunar environment than any other previous mission to the moon.

June 17th, 2009 NASA aims for unmanned moon rocket launch ThursdayWASHINGTON — NASA plans to launch an unmanned rocket to the moon Thursday, the first such mission in a decade. The space agency announced plans for the Cape Canaveral launch Wednesday after deciding to postpone a space shuttle mission because of a hydrogen gas leak.

June 11th, 2009 Japan's first lunar probe ends missionTOKYO — Japan's first lunar probe made a controlled crash landing on the moon Thursday, successfully completing a 19-month mission to study the Earth's nearest neighbor, Japan's space agency said. The remotely controlled satellite, named after the folklore princess Kaguya, had been orbiting the moon to map its surface and study its mineral distribution and gravity levels.