A special early edition of Moon Monday for International Moon Day, July 20.
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Was Shukla’s Axiom-4 flight to the International Space Station worth it for ISRO? | Indian Space Progress #29
A complicated question to answer for a controversial flight intended to advance India’s grand ambition of indigenously sending humans to space.
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Moon Monday #233: Visualizing a new Moon based on scientific discoveries by China’s Chang’e 6 mission
I’m over the Moon to share that Open Lunar Foundation is continuing to be a sponsor of my Moon Monday blog+newsletter for the fifth year in a row! 🌕
Open Lunar is a non-profit organization that actively promotes cooperative, peaceful, and sustainable
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Moon Monday #232: Still free mission updates
And encouraging information sharing.
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On SpaceNews going paywalled, and the broader disregard for archiving in journalism
This article is a break from my usual flair because space communities worldwide are affected by this important topic, and I have some thoughts to offer to add to the discussions.
SpaceNews, a well known media publication in the global space industry, went paywalled for its website on July 1
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Moon Monday #231: Achievements and shortfalls in Moon exploration this half year
A review of notable developments by country or region.
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Moon Monday #230: China leaps again in its steady march to Luna while NASA’s progress on Artemis remains a mixed bag
A look at recent Chinese milestones in the build up to crewed lunar missions, another blow(up) for Artemis, how Firefly’s Ocula can fill critical gaps for NASA, and more.
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Moon Monday #229: China extends lead in lunar orbital infrastructure, gets an edge in future crewed missions over the US
Plus: Examples of how Western media narratives of Chinese lunar activities misjudge capabilities and intent
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Moon Monday #228: The need for resilience in private lunar landing missions through expansive and collaborative testing
ispace Japan’s second Moon lander
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A pressing PSLV rocket failure and orbital congestion to brood over | Indian Space Progress #28
Plus more mission updates.
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #227: Proposed cuts, cancellations, continuations, and changes to NASA’s lunar missions
And other mission updates.
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Moon Monday #226: Blue Origin aims to launch its first two Moon missions by next year—with nearly no NASA payloads
Plus: Firefly to carry UAE’s second lunar rover and more.
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Why Moon missions need their own Wikipedia and beyond
Our Moon may be one of the largest satellites in the Solar System but its exploration has been concentrated on select areas. One of these is low lunar orbit, where mapping spacecraft from three countries have been concurrently flying from pole to pole between 50 to 150 kilometers above the
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Moon Monday #225: Lots of global lunar mission updates 🌙
Key news of the month: China has achieved the first ever daytime Earth-Moon distance measurement wherein a 1.2-meter telescope reflected an infrared laser off of a small retroreflector on the 61-kilogram Tiandu
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Moon Monday #224: A curious find from Chandrayaan 3, Artemis updates, and more
Two announcements before we begin:
- I’m honored to be moderating a fantastic panel on modern themes in global lunar exploration at the international Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) on Friday, May 9. If you’re attending GLEX in New Delhi, join us for the session. And, if
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Indian Space Progress #27: Three months of mission updates, and fixing ISRO’s monthly summaries
ISRO has been publishing monthly summaries of the varied activities and programs of India’s Department of Space (DOS) for years. Lately though, there have been consistent delays in publishing them by a month or two, and sometimes even more. The summaries have been trimmed too, now conveying less
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Moon Monday #223: International researchers to study Chang’e lunar samples, including US ones but without NASA funding
And more such interesting Moon exploration updates from China’s National Space Day on April 24.
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• Jatan Mehta
Moon Monday #222: How China navigated failure to nail down lunar navigation success
Plus: Exploration and science updates from the US, South Korea, and Europe.
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Moon Monday #221: The US is failing to explore lunar water as the principal goal of Artemis
And, countries allied with the US are facing delays in their own missions, allowing China to lead in this aspect of lunar exploration too.
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Moon Monday #220: Lunar science galore from the Chandrayaans
Plus mission updates and some tangents.
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• Jatan Mehta
Newly approved Chandrayaan 5 LUPEX mission will drill for water on the Moon and aid Artemis | Indian Space Progress #25-26
Plus: A host of new lunar science results from Chandrayaan 2 and 3. Enjoy this 3200-word Chandrayaan-special. 🌙
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Moon Monday #219: Results from India’s Chandrayaan 3 experiment to benefit future missions eyeing lunar water
👀 🧊 🌘
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Moon Monday #218: A molten Moon, a date for the SPA, sunset for Blue Ghost as well as inclusive Artemis language, and more
There’s a lot in this Moon Monday edition to unpack. Grab yourself a coffee or another mild drug of choice and let’s get started. 🤓
Chang’e 6 samples produce two more big results
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Moon Monday #217: Red A-CLPS 🔥💍
Also drills, flying regolith, a hard landing, Moonlight, and many more mission updates to quench the lunatic in you.
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• Jatan Mehta
If nasaspaceflight.com and its forum are blocked for you too, here’s how to access them
Sometime last year, nasaspaceflight.com (NSF) stopped loading for me. I could not access any page on its website, all of which said “Sorry, you have been blocked” no matter which browser I tried. Since then I’ve been accessing the NSF site in alternate ways because
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Moon Monday #216: Firefly Blue Ghost brings precision landing and lunar sci-tech bounties
Plus: Contextualizing the failure of Intuitive Machines’ second Moon mission and that of Lunar Trailblazer as grave losses for NASA.