Lunar and Planetary Science at the NSSDCA

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What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science

128 new moons have been discovered around Saturn, bringing the total number of natural saturnian satellites to 274. More.....

The Blue Ghost Mission 1 ended its mission as planned, about 5 hours after local sunset. The last message was received at about 23:15 UT (7:15 p.m. EDT) on 16 March. For more, see the NASA press release.

The ESA Hera mission flew within 5000 km of Mars and 300 km of the small moon Deimos on March 12 on its way to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system.

The Intuitive Machines 2 (PRIME 1) lunar lander touched down in the Mons Mouton region near the Moon's south pole on March 6 at roughly 17:30 UT (12:30 p.m. EST), but tipped on its side during landing and was not able to produce enough power to maintain heating and operations.

This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History

1965: Ranger 9 returns pictures of the Moon before impacting the surface.
1975: Mariner 10 mission terminated after three successful Mercury encounters.
2011: Stardust/NExT mission decommissioned after flybys of comets Wild 2 and Tempel 1.