Space

https://archive.is/pVwWM

Lunar exploration has always held a strange position in the history of exploration. For all of human history, people have been staring up at the Moon, and for centuries astronomers used telescopes to study the lunar surface. The telescopic surveying and mapping of the Moon by astronomers can (and should, I think) be considered a form of exploration. From this perspective, the Moon had been thoroughly explored far before the dawn of the Space Age. But on the other hand, because of the nature of the Moon’s orbit, the Moon also possessed some of the most mysterious and inaccessible terrain that ever taunted exploration-minded humans.

The Moon is tidally locked, meaning that only one side of the Moon ever faces the Earth. And so for all those millennia of Moon-gazing, there was an entire half of our natural satellite that no human had ever seen before. We would only get our first look at the end of the 1950s, and it would take even longer for us to complete a full map of the Moon. Here is a visual history of how we did it, designed to guide you through the process, even if you aren’t yet familiar with any lunar features.

We had nice northern lights last night. This is the entire geomagnetic storm from start to finish, sped up 10 times.

NASA live: Follow live television broadcasts on NASA+, the agency's streaming service, and NASA's social media channels with this schedule of upcoming live events including news briefings, launches and landings.

NASA's ambitious plans to build a space station in orbit of the Moon are officially on hold, administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday, with the space agency instead skipping the orbital habitat in favor of building a permanent base on the Lunar surface.

Isaacman made the announcement during the opening keynote for NASA's Ignition Day event during which the space agency was providing updates on a number of Artemis-related initiatives and Trump's National Space Policy.

"It should not be much of a surprise that we intend to pause Gateway in its current form and focus on building lunar infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the surface," Isaacman told attendees. "We will pivot agency talent and hardware already working on Gateway to the surface or other programs."

However, suspension of the Gateway project - which would have resulted in the construction of the first space station outside of Earth orbit - may come as a surprise to NASA's international partners on the project, namely the European Space Agency, Canada, and Japan. All had discussed the project as an international effort to continue the partnership established on the ISS into the next frontier in space.

JAXA, the CSA, and ESA have already supplied components and systems for the Gateway, most notably the European-built HALO habitation module, which was delivered to NASA in April 2025, along with multiple modules constructed by ESA for inclusion on the now-mothballed space station.

Of all the asteroids that have imperiled the planet, 2024 YR4 is unparalleled. Soon after it was spotted in December 2024, worldwide telescopic observations quickly positioned it as the most dangerous space rock ever discovered—one that stood a 3.1 percent (or 1-in-32) chance of crashing into Earth on December 22, 2032. If it were to hit one of the cities potentially in its path, this 60-meter asteroid would have unleashed a force comparable to several atomic bombs, devastating the unfortunate metropolis.

An Earth impact was eventually ruled out in February of last year. But a late plot twist revealed 2024 YR4 stood a 4.3 percent (1-in-23) chance of slamming into our moon on the same date. Now a concerted effort by astronomers indicates the asteroid will comfortably miss our alabaster companion, too—by 21,200 kilometers.

“We think this is certainly the faintest solar system object that has ever been observed,” says Andy Rivkin, an astronomer and planetary defense researcher at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, who led the JWST effort to track 2024 YR4.

NASA has selected United Launch Alliance's Centaur V upper stage for the Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

The space agency will use the Centaur V, currently flying as the upper stage of ULA's Vulcan rocket, for Artemis IV and V, both slated for 2028. A flight spare is also being ordered.

The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS) currently used by Artemis is a modified Delta IV cryogenic second stage, always intended as a stopgap. NASA had planned to replace it with the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) but that program is running behind schedule and over budget. When new administrator Jared Isaacman signalled plans to increase SLS flight cadence, the writing was on the wall leaving Centaur V to fill the gap.

ULA is not the only upper stage option, and NASA's intention to issue a sole-source contract might surprise some. However, the agency noted that alternatives, such as Blue Origin's New Glenn Upper Stage (NGUS), require "significant modifications" to Mobile Launcher 1, and ULA was already familiar with the steps needed to modify an upper stage for SLS. In addition, the Centaur V is a variant of the Atlas Centaur, used under the Commercial Crew Program, meaning that qualifying the stage for a human crew should not cause too many concerns.