Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Editor’s Note, April 16, 2024: This story has been updated to remove an unclear secondary image and caption. As the Moon blotted out the Sun to viewers across the United States during the April 8 solar eclipse, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured an image from some 223,000 miles away of the highly anticipated celestial […]

Posted April 15, 2024

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Science Mission Directorate

The Solar System

NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter

NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024.

Posted April 5, 2024

Chandrayaan-1

Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Mini-RF Instrument

Uncategorized

NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon’s North Pole

Additional evidence of water activity on moon Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon’s north pole. NASA’s Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice.

Posted March 19, 2024

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s LRO Images Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus Lander

On Feb. 22, Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, called Odysseus, completed a seven-day journey to lunar orbit and softly landed near crater Malapert A in the South Pole region of the Moon at 6:24 p.m. EST. On Feb. 24, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site at an altitude of about 56 miles […]

Posted February 26, 2024

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)

Artemis

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

NASA to Study Effects of Radio Noise on Lunar Science

In February 2024, Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission will launch to the Moon’s South Polar region, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative. This mission is part of CLPS’ ongoing effort to bring down the cost for science investigations and technology demonstrations going to the Moon and to make them more routine […]

Posted February 1, 2024

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

The Solar System

NASA’s LRO Spots Japan’s Moon Lander

On Jan. 19, 2024, at 10:20 a.m. EST, the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the lunar surface. Five days later, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site and photographed SLIM. LRO acquired the image at an altitude of about 50 miles (80 km). […]

Posted January 26, 2024

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Laser Instrument on NASA’s LRO Successfully ‘Pings’ Indian Moon Lander

For the first time at the Moon, a laser beam was transmitted and reflected between an orbiting NASA spacecraft and an Oreo-sized device on ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organisation) Vikram lander on the lunar surface. The successful experiment opens the door to a new style of precisely locating targets on the Moon’s surface. At 3 […]

Posted January 18, 2024