Lunar science probe sends back moon shots less than week after launch, another orbiting moon

October 8th, 2009 Moon crashing probes complete major milestoneWASHINGTON — NASA's moon probe has separated into two pieces as planned, a major milestone toward a Friday morning double-barreled crash into the lunar surface. The smaller probe with five cameras and four other scientific instruments is now trailing behind a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull.

September 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Chinese experts have announced that the country's space scientists had completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon. The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, was made based on image data obtained by a highly technical stereo camera carried by the Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe.

September 28th, 2009 BEIJING - Chinese experts Monday announced that the country's space scientists have completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon. The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, is based on image data obtained by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera carried by Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe vehicle, launched Oct 2007.

September 25th, 2009 BANGALORE - India's own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country's maiden lunar craft had discovered water on the moon, a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA's probe that was also aboard Chandrayaan-1, India's top space scientist G. Madhavan Nair said here Friday.

September 24th, 2009 LONDON - The discovery of water on the moon by Indian maiden lunar craft Chandrayaan-1 is just the breakthrough international space scientists were waiting for in order to kick start the moon exploration programme again, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) said Thursday. This is a massively impressive accomplishment, RAS Secretary Martin Barstow, a leading British astronomer, told IANS after American scientists made the stunning announcement that the Indian mooncraft had sent evidence of water on the lunar surface.

July 28th, 2009 BANGALORE - India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has captured the shadow of the moon on the earth's surface during the July 22 total solar eclipse, an Indian space agency official said Tuesday. The images were captured by the special terrain mapping camera (TMC) on board the spacecraft.

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 20th, 2009 PARIS - The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) has said he's sure that mankind will go back to the Moon as soon as 2020 or 2025. ESA's Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain made this statement while discussing the significance of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and of continuing lunar exploration.

July 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Though the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has expressed its intent to send a manned moon mission by 2015, Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan Thursday told parliament that India has no such plans. In reply to a question on whether India proposes to send a man to the moon, Chavan said: "No sir." The minister, however, informed the Rajya Sabha that "India is planning for a follow-on mission Chandrayaan-2, which has an orbitor and lander which land on moon (sic) and a rover which moves on the surface of the moon to probe its surface".

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 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 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA launched its dual moon mission Thursday that will pave the way for humans to return to the moon. The Atlas V rocket launch lifted off at 05:32 p.m., just 20 minutes after planned, from NASA's Cape Canaveral in Florida.

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 15th, 2009 LONDON - The Moon is all set to get its very own neighborhood watch, in the form of a scouting probe due to launch on June 17, which will make upcoming trips to the moon that little bit safer. Killer space radiation and meteorite impacts are just a few of the pleasures that await astronauts venturing onto the lunar surface as part of NASA's return to the moon, planned for the 2020s.

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.