Ars Technica reports, “NASA officials announced contract awards for the initial elements of a lunar base on Tuesday, including two rovers that will provide mobility to astronauts. With the series of announcements, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman sought to maintain momentum around a Moon Base initiative revealed two months ago as part of the space agency’s return to the Moon. ‘For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand, and we will not slow down,’ he said.”
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Tag: NASA
Astrolab’s Debut Lunar Rover to Deliver Four NASA Payloads to the Moon
Space News reports, “Astrolab’s first lunar rover will carry four NASA payloads on a mission planned to launch later this year. Astrolab announced May 18 that it had reached agreements with four NASA centers to fly payloads on its FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform, or FLIP, rover scheduled to launch on Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander late this year.”
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NASA Accelerates X-59 Flight Campaign Ahead of First Supersonic Test
Aviation Week reports, “NASA is continuing to speed up the rate of X-59 flight tests as the Quesst low-boom supersonic demonstrator program builds up to its first Mach 1 faster-than-sound milestone flight. The needle nose Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-built aircraft has so far accumulated around 19.6 flight hours on 16 flights, eight of which were completed in April.”
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NASA Alters Artemis 3 Launch Vehicle Configuration
Space News reports, “NASA plans to fly the Space Launch System on Artemis 3 without an upper stage as the agency begins to define revised plans for the mission. NASA, in a May 13 update on Artemis 3, said the SLS will launch with an inert ‘spacer’ in place of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage on the mission. The spacer, being built at Marshall Space Flight Center, will have the same dimensions and interfaces as the ICPS.”
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NASA’s TESS Spacecraft Identifies Rare and Unprecedented Planetary System
SPACE reports, “Using NASA’s exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets (ASTEP) on the Antarctic Plateau, astronomers have discovered a rare and uniquely weird planetary system.”
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NASA Shuts Down Voyager 1 Instrument to Extend Mission
SatNews reports, “On Friday, April 17, 2026, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sent commands to deactivate one of the few remaining science instruments aboard Voyager 1. The decision to shut down the Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) experiment was made to conserve the spacecraft’s dwindling power reserves, ensuring that the most distant human-made object can continue its historic journey through interstellar space for as long as possible.”
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NASA Solicits Industry Proposals for Next-Generation Relay Service
Space News reports, “NASA plans to seek proposals for commercial communications services that can be backward compatible with the agency’s aging fleet of relay satellites. NASA issued April 10 a draft solicitation for Project NEXUS, a part of the broader Commercial Services Project.”
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Watch: SpaceX Launches Cygnus XL Cargo Ship to Resupply ISS Crew
SPACE reports, “A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soared into a blue sky over Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:41 a.m. EDT (1141 GMT) on Saturday, sending Northrop Grumman’s ‘Cygnus XL’ resupply freighter toward the International Space Station (ISS).”
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Video
SpaceX launches Cygnus XL cargo ship to ISS from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday at 7:41 a.m. EDT (Launch at the 00:12 mark)
VideoFromSpace; YouTube
Artemis Era Could Help Solve Longstanding Questions About the Moon
Scientific American reports, “If NASA’s ambitious lunar exploration plans succeed, scientists will cover the moon with sensors—and find answers to several long-standing questions about the inner solar system.”
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Artemis II Sets New Human Distance Record During Lunar Flyby
SPACE reports, “NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission just etched its name in the record books. The four Artemis 2 astronauts have now traveled farther from Earth than any people in history, breaking the mark set by the Apollo 13 crew on April 15, 1970.”
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