NASA's tiny CAPSTONE spacecraft has run into trouble on its way to the moon and is currently tumbling out of control. The US space agency's $30 million probe, which is around the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds, has also been experiencing temperature issues and had problems generating power from its solar panels. Toward the end of a major engine burn last Thursday (September 9), CAPSTONE experienced an anomaly that put the probe in a protective'safe mode', mission team members said. In an update issued this week, Advanced Space – the company that is managing the project for NASA – described it as a'dynamic operational situation'. It is not the first time CAPSTONE has hit a snag.

Russia and China have committed to work together on a moon base and lunar space station, but it will not be ready to house astronauts until at least 2036, the two countries said. Known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), it will consist of a surface moon base and station in lunar orbit, with construction expected to start in 2026. The two nations have asked other international agencies to join them in the project, which will also include rovers and'hopping robots' to aid eventual inhabitants. NASA is working with the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as Canada and Japan on the Lunar Gateway, a modular crewed space station designed to operate in orbit around the moon and help astronauts reach the lunar surface from 2024. While Russia and China are working together on the moon, the two will compete in low Earth orbit, with both planning their own space station to rival the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA's ambitious plans to build a base on the surface of the moon will likely be delayed. According to NASA's Dough Loverro, who oversees the agency's human exploration programs, several aspects of the project's technical design and multi-phase rollout need to be revised. One of the first changes will affect NASA's touted Lunar Gateway, a space station planned to orbit the moon and to be used as a staging point for the subsequent construction of a base on the moon's surface. NASA's ambitious plans for a lunar base will be delayed by at least a year after unexpected technical complications with the Lunar Gateway, a space station planned to orbit the moon and used as a staging area for construction materials NASA had targeted a completion window for the Lunar Gateway in 2024, and promised construction on the lunar base would begin no later than 2025, but according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Lunar Gateway is being reworked. NASA says it will still have a space station in orbit around the moon in 2024, but it won't initially be as capable as originally planned, likely delaying the completion date for the lunar base.

A timeline for putting the first Europeans on the surface of the moon will be in place by the end of the year, the European Space Agency has announced. David Parker, the agency's Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, made the comments during a space conference in Wales earlier this week. Plans for a European moonshot are already in motion, he added, part of which would see the construction of a space station in orbit above the lunar surface. The lunar gateway would provide not only a stepping stone to the moon but also to Mars, as well as providing a test bed to explore how space living impacts humans. Dr Parker -- who is also the former head of the UK Space Agency -- discussed the plans during the 2019 UK Space Conference that was held in Newport, Wales, from September 24–26.

The lunar space station, Gateway, will orbit the moon in an ellipse -- with a path that will resemble a halo -- when it is assembled in the next decade, NASA and the European Space Agency have announced. The station will act as a half-way house between the Earth and the Moon, acting as a place of shelter, making trips to the moon more efficient and providing a launch pad for missions heading further out into the solar system. Much like the International Space Station, the Gateway will be a permanent base on which astronauts will live for extended periods, conducting research on-board and making regular excursions down to the moon's surface. The halo-like orbit of the lunar gateway will see it trace a halo-like path around the moon (pictured). A stepping stone to allow astronauts to more easily travel to the Moon as well as a forward outpost for crewed excursions further into the solar system, the Lunar Orbital Platform is due for construction within the next decade.

NASA is plowing ahead with its plans to send humans back to the moon, selecting its first commercial partner for developing the lunar'Gateway.' In a statement NASA announced that Maxar Technologies -- formerly SSL -- has been awarded $375 million to build power and propulsion systems for the lunar'Gateway,' a small spaceship that will orbit the moon and act as a layover for astronauts on lunar missions. From the'Gateway' astronauts will board landers and make the descent to the moon's service. A power and propulsion element of the Gateway is a 50-kilowatt solar spacecraft. An artist's impression is shown As reported by Ars Technica, Maxar will be joined by Jeff Bezo's aerospace company, Blue Origin, and Draper, who will help build, design, and operate the craft.

March 11, 2017 --Dominating the night sky, Earth's natural satellite is often the first target to catch the eye of budding astronomers, and now the moon's siren call is pulling the world's leading space powers too. The five space agencies responsible for building the International Space Station (ISS) met last month in Tsukuba, home to the Japanese space agency JAXA, to decide what comes after the aging ISS. Discussions advanced an evolving plan to build a lunar space station, settling on a tentative orbit and paving the way for finalized plans that may come in late 2017 or early 2018. But friction remains around the ultimate goal of the station: Will the ISS successor be a truly lunar space station or a spaceport on the way to Mars? With the ISS's decommissioning tentatively scheduled for 2024, the International Spacecraft Working Group (ISWG), composed of the American, Russian, Japanese, European, and Canadian space agencies, is looking ahead to the next phase of human space exploration.