As Artemis II crew returns to Earth after their unprecedented lunar-far-side flyby, 2026 robotic Moon missions are planned. China National Space Agency expects a 5th Moon lander success in 5 tries NET August with Chang’E-7 (1 and 2 were orbiters). Along with an orbiter, Chang’E-7 will send lander and hopping probe to Shackleton Crater ~89°S, the hopper to search for water ice in the crater permanent shadows. Chang’E-7 carries instruments from Egypt / Bahrain, Russia, Italy, Thailand, Switzerland and the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) of Hawai’i. ILOA does not use USA government funds so does not violate the Wolf Amendment. Commercial Moon missions include those of Intuitive Machines (IM), Firefly, Blue Origin (Blue) and Astrobotic. IM-3 heads to Reiner Gamma to investigate magnetic anomalies. Firefly Blue Ghost 2 takes ESA Lunar Pathfinder into orbit and UAE Rashid 2 rover to the far side. Blue tests heavy-lift delivery capabilities with Blue Moon Mark 1 to the South Pole. Astrobotic Griffin-1 carries science instruments and 2 rovers to ~86°S Massif Malapert, including Astrolab FLEX rover with ILOA ILO-1 telescope mounted on lightbar. Developed to survive lunar nights, ILO-1 includes a 7×13-cm 6.4-megapixel Schmidt-Cassegrain optical telescope that avoids Earth’s atmospheric turbulence. (Image Credits: )
Launched on April 18, 2018, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) remains operational in its Third Extended Mission. Managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and operated by MIT under Principal Investigator George Ricker, the project’s original visionary, the spacecraft maintains an ingenious 2:1 lunar resonance orbit. This high-Earth elliptical path—circling Earth twice for every one lunar orbit—provides a fuel-efficient, thermally stable environment outside the Van Allen radiation belts. Despite entering safe-mode briefly, related to solar panel orientation and battery discharge, TESS continues high-precision observations, and every 13.7 days at perigee transmits accumulated data to Earth. Recent highlights include observation of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS and confirmation of TESS Object of Interest (TOI) 1080-b as a temperate planet slightly larger than Earth orbiting an M-dwarf star. TESS has confirmed 765 exoplanets of a NASA total of 6,150+ and identified 7,913 candidates (TOIs). A current objective is to identify 50 small, rocky worlds with measurable masses to serve as benchmark targets for the James Webb Space Telescope’s probe of atmospheric composition and habitability. Originally a $287 million mission, TESS adds to a catalog of rocky worlds for the next generation of deep-space spectroscopy. (Image Credits: )
☆ International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 74 seven-members …..
☆ Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-21 three-member crew ……
◐ Lunar Enterprise News: Artemis II human Moon mission….
Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Mon Apr 13: Apollo Asteroid 2026 FV6 (0.019 AU); Tue Apr 14: Aten Asteroid 2013 GM3 (0.001 AU); Sat Apr 18: Apollo Asteroid 2026 FJ6 (0.040 AU)
First Woman FLIES to the Moon …
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First Woman LANDS on the Moon …
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