Posted on December 5, 2013, at 5:01 pm .
Credit: Moon Express
LAS VEGAS, NV, December 5, 2013 (Moon Express PR) – Moon Express, Inc., a privately funded lunar resources company, unveiled its “MX-1” lunar lander spacecraft today as a breakthrough robotic space vehicle capable of a multitude of applications including delivering scientific and commercial payloads to the Moon at a fraction of the cost of conventional approaches. The spacecraft design is being unveiled today at the closing session of Autodesk University in Las Vegas in front of an audience of over 10,000 attendees.
Continue reading ‘Moon Express Unveils “MX-1” Commercial Lunar Lander’
Posted on December 3, 2013, at 5:02 am .
Video Caption: A 1967 United Nations treaty states that outer space isn’t up for grabs.This hasn’t stopped at least one entrepreneur from selling land on our closest celestial neighbors. Scientific American editor Clara Moskowitz explains.
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Posted on December 2, 2013, at 4:16 am .
A Long March 3-B rocket lifts off with China’s Chang’e-3 lunar rover. (Credit: CAST)
UPDATE: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch has been shifted to Tuesday evening.
China has kicked off a busy month with the successful launch of the Chang’e-8 lunar rover mission. There are 15 launches on the manifests of the world’s rocket companies in December. If all missions are completed and none are added, there will be 85 orbital launches for the year.
SpaceX is the next to go on Tuesday evening, with the company hoping its third attempt to launch the SES-8 communications satellite is a charm. The launch window opens at 5:41 p.m. EST, and SpaceX will webcast the attempt.
The company is hoping to get one more launch in by the end of 2013 on Dec. 20 with the Thaicom 6 satellite as the payload. Some other notable launches scheduled for December include:
- Antares/Cygnus: Orbital Sciences first commercial cargo delivery to the International Space Station (Dec. 17);
- Soyuz 2-1v: The first flight of Russia’s “light” version of the venerable booster (Dec. 23);
- GSLV/GSAT 14: India will make a re-flight of a cryogenic engine that failed to fire during its inaugural mission in April 2010 (TBD);
- Long March 4B/CBERS 3: China will launch a Earth resources satellite jointly developed with Brazil (Dec. 10);
- Atlas V/Delta IV: These two ULA military launches will bring the company’s total to 12 for the year (Dec. 5 & 12);
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SCHEDULED LAUNCHES FOR DECEMBER 2013
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Date
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Launch Vehicle
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Launch Site
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Nation/Company /Agency
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Payload
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Result
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USA
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12/03/13
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Falcon 9
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CCAFS
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USA/SpaceX
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SES 8
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12/05/13
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Atlas V
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VAFB
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USA/ULA/USAF
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NROL-39
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12/12/13
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Delta IV
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CCAFS
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USA/ULA/USAF
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GPS 2F-5
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12/17/13
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Antares
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MARS
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USA/Orbital/NASA
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Cygnus 2
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12/20/13
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Falcon 9
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CCAFS
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USA/SpaceX
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Thaicom 6
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RUSSIA
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12/08/13
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Proton
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Baikonur
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Russia/ILS
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Inmarsat 5
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12/19/13
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Soyuz
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Kourou
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Russia/Europe/Arianespace
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Gaia
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12/23/13
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Soyuz 2-1v
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Plesetsk
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Russia/TsSKB-Progress
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AIST & Calibration Spheres
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12/26/13
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Proton
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Baikonur
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Russia/ILS
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Express AM5
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CHINA
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12/02/13
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Long March 3B
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Xichang
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China/CNSA
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Chang’e-3
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Success
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12/10/13
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Long March 4B
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Taiyuan
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China/CNSA
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CBERS 3
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12/20/13
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Long March 3B
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Xichang
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China/CNSA
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Tupac Katari
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TBD
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Long March 4B
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Taiyuan
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China/CSNA
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Gaofen 2
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INDIA
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TBD
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GSLV
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Satish Dhawan
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India/ISRO
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GSAT 14
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JAPAN
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TBD
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H-2A
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Tanegashima
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Japan/Mitsubishi
/JAXA
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ALOS 2
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Posted on December 1, 2013, at 1:23 pm .
The Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu rover on the moon.
Silicon Valley, CA, December 1, 2013 (Moon Express PR) – Moon Express, a U.S. commercial lunar enterprise, is enabling scientific collaboration between the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and China’s Chang’e-3 Moon mission successfully launched today from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, southwest China.
The U.S. private sector collaboration on Chang’e-3 is made possible through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between ILOA and the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) on September 4, 2012 in Hawaii, and a MOU signed between ILOA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on August 13, 2013, in Beijing.
Continue reading ‘Moon Express Enables Private American Scientific Collaboration on China Moon Mission’
Posted on December 1, 2013, at 11:30 am .
A Long March 3-B rocket lifts off with China’s Chang’e-3 lunar rover. (Credit: CAST)
A Chinese Long March-3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Launch Center early Monday morning carrying a six-wheel lunar rover named Yutu (Jade Rabbit).
The Chang’e-3 lander is scheduled to touch down on China’s Sinus Iridum in mid-December, and Yutu will then begin a three-month exploration of the surface. The lander and the rover each possess a sophisticated suite of instruments.
Continue reading ‘China Launches Rover to Moon’
Posted on November 30, 2013, at 10:58 am .
Model of Chinese lunar rover Yutu. (Credit: CNSA)
China’s surging space program will embark on its most ambitious robotic mission yet on Monday as it launches the Chang’e-3 mission to the moon. The spacecraft will land and deploy a six-wheel rover named Yutu (Jade Rabbit) that will explore the surface for three months.
The launch aboard a Long March-3B rocket from Xichang is scheduled for Monday at 1:30 a.m. local time (Sunday, 12:30 p.m. EST). The moon landing — the first by any country since the Soviet Luna 24 mission in 1976 — is scheduled for mid-December. Only the United States and Soviet Union have soft landed spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Chang’e is named for the Chinese goddess of the moon. Yutu is the jade rabbit kept by the goddess.
Continue reading ‘Chinese to Launch Lunar Rover on Monday’
Posted on November 25, 2013, at 8:49 am .
By A’ndrea Elyse Messer
Penn State News
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Lunar Lion, a moon lander designed and built by the Penn State Lunar Lion team, the only university-led team in the Google Lunar competition, will be sent into space as part of a multiple spacecraft effort coordinated by a new player in the space industry, Team Phoenicia LLC, of Menlo Park, Calif.
The Lunar Lion team’s fully refundable launch reservation fee has been paid to Phoenicia.
“Phoenicia has brought together a complementary set of payloads, filling a need in the industry,” said Michael Paul, director of space systems initiatives at Penn State’s Applied Research Lab.
Continue reading ‘GLXP Update: Penn State Lunar Lion Partners With Team Phoenicia in Moon Bid’
Posted on November 20, 2013, at 2:35 pm .
BOULDER, CO, November 20, 2013 (Golden Spike PR) – The Golden Spike Company announced today it has created a Lunar Science Advisory Board to help guide the company’s development of the world’s first private human lunar expedition capability.
The seven inaugural members of the Lunar Science Advisory Board, or LSAB, are distinguished lunar and planetary scientists from around the world. They will provide Golden Spike with scientific expertise and will recommend exploration strategies, sample collection and return requirements, and surface experiment package needs.
Continue reading ‘Golden Spike Forms Lunar Science Advisory Board’
Posted on November 18, 2013, at 6:35 am .
NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2013 (Klee Irwin PR) – Klee Irwin, the Southern California-based entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder/director of Quantum Gravity Research today provided a look into his recent six-figure investment in Moon Express www.MoonExpress.com. Moon Express is a privately funded lunar resource company created to establish new avenues for private space activity beyond near-Earth-orbit. The company is a leading contender for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize and hopes to become the first private team to land a robot on the Moon.
Irwin commented, “I invested less for financial payoff and more to fund space science and assist in the expansion of Earth-based life and technology into the vast regions beyond Earth.”
Continue reading ‘Moon Express Receives Additional Investment’
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