Andreas Mogensen was impressed with how smooth the landing was. The first European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut (and the first non-American) to serve as a pilot on a US commercial spacecraft, Mogensen and his SpaceX Crew-7 crewmates returned to Earth after a 197-day stay on board from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 12. … Read more
Ten days after making Japan’s first moon landing, the SLIM lunar lander suddenly wakes up again after arriving upside down. Mission operators with SLIM, or the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon mission, successfully completed the first moon landing for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on January 19. However, SLIM’s solar panels were in the … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. The journey of “Moon Sniper,” the robotic explorer who made Japan only the fifth country to safely land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, hasn’t gone quite as expected. Although the mission – officially known … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. The journey of “Moon Sniper,” the robotic explorer who made Japan only the fifth country to safely land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, hasn’t gone quite as expected. Although the mission – officially known … Read more
Japan is on the moon – at least for a few hours. The country’s robotic SLIM spacecraft landed on the lunar surface this morning (Jan. 19), marking a huge success for Japan, becoming only the fifth country to land softly on Earth’s nearest neighbor. “First and foremost, the landing was successful,” Yamakawa Hiroshi, chairman of … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. As the first U.S. lunar lander mission in decades ends without reaching its target, a Japanese-launched spacecraft moves closer to the moon and prepares for a historic landing attempt. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. As the first U.S. lunar lander mission in decades ends without reaching its target, a Japanese-launched spacecraft moves closer to the moon and prepares for a historic landing attempt. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart … Read more