Odysseus, the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon in half a century, neared a mission-ending slumber on Wednesday, six days after a lopsided touchdown that hindered its operation, though NASA and the company behind the vehicle cheered its performance as a success. Despite persistent difficulties in communicating with the lander and keeping its …
Japan’s first moon lander responded to a signal from Earth, suggesting it has survived a second freezing weekslong lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Monday. JAXA called the signal, received late Sunday night, a “miracle” because the probe was not designed to survive the lunar night, when temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius …
It was a great moment for Japan as the country completed its first successful soft-landing as the “moon sniper” SLIM spacecraft landed on the Moon. But good news soon turned into bad news, before it turned into good news again. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) made a precision landing on the lunar surface …