NASA’s moon probe separates as planned, ready to smack into lunar surface Friday morning

October 9th, 2009 NASA to moon: Get ready because here we comeWASHINGTON — Two NASA spacecraft are barreling toward the moon at twice the speed of a bullet, about to crash Friday into a lunar crater in a search for ice. "Everything is working so very well," NASA's Victoria Friedensen, a manager in NASA's exploration office, said minutes before the planned one-two smack into the moon's south pole.

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 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an instrument aboard India's recently ended Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, along with the Deep Impact spacecraft, has confirmed the existence of water on the surface of the Moon, with scientists explaining the process of its formation. "Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

September 25th, 2009 BANGALORE - India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-I, had made a "path-breaking and real discovery" by establishing the presence of water on the moon in June itself, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Friday. India's own Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on board the country's maiden lunar craft had discovered water on the moon in June, a finding confirmed by US space agency NASA's probe that was also on board Chandrayaan-1, India's top space scientist G.

September 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Discovery of water on the moon by India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 with a thin layer of surface 'dew' appearing to form and then dissipating each day has set the scientific community agog. "Finding water on the Moon in daylight is a huge surprise, even if it is only a small amount of water and only in the form of molecules stuck to soil," writes University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine.

July 17th, 2009 BANGALORE - Indian space scientists have corrected the orientation of the countrys first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 after one of its sensors malfunctioned, a senior official said Friday. We have overcome the snag and the spacecraft is again able to look at the lunar surface while orbiting at about 200 km above the moon, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S.

July 17th, 2009 New NASA photos show Apollo leftovers on the moonWASHINGTON — New NASA photos of the moon show the leftovers from man's exploration 40 years ago. For the first time, photos from space pinpoint equipment left behind from Apollo landings, and even the well-worn tracks made by astronauts on the moon surface.

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 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'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 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.

April 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has revealed that the Moon dust, which causes hazards like ruining scientific experiments and endangering astronauts' health, is influenced by the Sun's elevation. Lunar dust has long been described as the No.