[NASA Press Release - 08.09.2009]
NASA has identified the spot where it will search for water on the moon. Reporters are invited to attend the announcement of the target location where the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and its spent Centaur rocket will hit in October. The briefing will take place at 10 a.m.
PDT, Friday, Sept. 11, in the main auditorium, Building N201, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site.

[White Label Space Press Release - 30.08.2009]
White Label Space has announced its newest Partner, AOES Group BV (AOES). AOES is a well-established supplier of specialist engineering services to the European Space Agency (ESA) with a long track record dating back to 1980. AOES will contribute to White Label Space’s no-name space mission to land on the Moon, which will provide massive media exposure and sponsorship opportunities for the world’s biggest brands.

[ISRO Press Release - 29.08.2009]
Radio contact with Chandrayaan-I spacecraft was abruptly lost at 0130 Hrs (IST) on August 29, 2009. Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore received the data from Chandrayaan-I during the previous orbit upto 0025 Hrs (IST).

Detailed review of the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft is in progress and health of the spacecraft subsystems is being analysed.

[ISRO Press Release - 21.08.2009]
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA performed a unique joint experiment today (Aug. 21, 2009), that could yield additional information on the possibility of existence of ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the North pole of the moon. Known as Bi-Static Experiment, it involved ISROs Chandrayaan-1 and NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. Currently, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO are orbiting the Moon. The two spacecraft passed close enough to one another when they were over the lunar North pole to attempt this interesting experiment.

[NASA Press Release - 04.08.2009]
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is accepting proposals from teams of undergraduate and graduate students for the inaugural Lunabotics Mining Competition. The event will be held at the Astronaut Hall of Fame near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., May 25-28, 2010.

[NASA Press Release - 25.08.2009]
Upon starting an early morning communications pass on Aug. 22, 2009, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission operations team discovered the spacecraft had experienced an anomaly.

According to spacecraft data, the LCROSS Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) experienced a fault. The IRU is a sensor used by the spacecraft's attitude control system (ACS) to measure the orientation of the spacecraft. The anomaly caused the spacecraft ACS to switch to the Star Tracker Assembly for spacecraft rate information and caused the spacecraft's thruster to fire excessively, consuming a substantial amount of fuel. Initial estimates indicate that the spacecraft still contains sufficient fuel to complete the full mission.

[LOIRP Press Release - 20.08.2009]
Yesterday the LRO team released a new image of the Apollo 14 landing site. You can clearly make out the paths that the crew walked as well as the location of the Apollo 14 Antares Lunar Module Descent Stage.

In June 2009 LOIRP issued its own view and analysis of this landing site - as seen by Lunar Orbiter III back in 1967.

Comparing our high resolution image of the site with that taken by LRO clearly shows no feature where Antares' Descent Stage now stands [larger image]. While the resolution of the Lunar Orbiter image (0.8 meters/pixel) would probably not reveal astronaut tracks in great detail, we're rather certain that it would have seen an object the size of Antares' Descent Stage.

[X-Prize Press Release - 25.08.2009]
The X PRIZE Foundation announced today that three teams have registered to make attempts to win the $1.65 million still available in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The prize program is managed by the X PRIZE Foundation as part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program. The competition is designed to accelerate technological developments supporting the commercial creation of vertical take-off and landing rockets with enhanced safety and performance.

[LPI Press Release - 21.07.2009]
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is pleased to announce the release of an expanding lunar education new-media portal, MyMoon. MyMoon leverages our new scientific exploration of the Moon and innovative social networking opportunities to engage a fresh new audience in lunar science and exploration - the Net Generation. LPI is collaborating with lunar scientists, educators, artists - and the public - to populate it with science content, diverse media exhibits, events, and opportunities for involvement. Through MyMoon, the public can interact with lunar content that will inform them about NASA's lunar science research and missions, and engage them in future plans for lunar exploration and eventual habitation.

[Google Press Release - 20.07.2009]
Forty years ago today, on July 20, 1969, the world watched as the crew of Apollo 11 took the first human steps on the surface of the Moon. In celebration of this historic occasion, Google is launching Moon in Google Earth, an interactive 3D atlas of the Moon, viewable with Google Earth 5.0. Moon in Google Earth was announced today at the Newseum, in Washington, DC, where Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Google Senior VP of Engineering Alan Eustace, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, A Man on the Moon author Andrew Chaikin, and space tourist Anousheh Ansari delivered remarks.