What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science
The crash site of the Israeli Beresheet lunar mission has been found by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The impact occurred on 11 April at about 19:25 UT. The LRO camera has returned an image of the impact site.
The JAXA (Japan) Hayabusa 2 mission completed its first touchdown and ascent from asteroid Ryugu at approximately 22:30 UT on 21 February (7:30 a.m. JST 22 February). An image of the touchdown site shows the shadow of the spacecraft and the discolored area of the touchdown.
On 3 January, the CNSA (China) Chang'e 4 lunar mission made the first landing ever on the far side of the Moon and deployed the Yutu-2 rover. They successfully ended hibernation after their second lunar night at the end of February and are continuing operations.
This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History
- 1963
- Launch of Vostok 6, Valentina Tereshkova orbits Earth, becomes the first woman in space.
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