Moon exploration is undergoing a potentially transformative moment. Over the course of six weeks, three different lunar landers began a rocket-fueled space journey to learn more about Earth's nearest neighbor. All three landers are operated by private, and relatively newly-formed companies. That's a marked shift away from space exploration of the 20th century, which was dominated by state-backed, public institutions like NASA. If they complete their missions, these space upstarts could help pave the way for future planned human moon missions, and possibly, even a not-too distant lunar economy.

After four years without an incident, SpaceX engineers had good reason to be confident about a routine launch this week. But that confidence was literally blown out of the water this morning after a Falcon 9 rocket booster dramatically exploded shortly after landing. Booster 1062 had just broken the record for the most consecutive launches without failure when it failed to touch down a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. A shocking video captured the moment the booster suddenly tipped over and was engulfed in a ball of purple flames. This marks the first time since 2021 that a SpaceX booster stage has failed to land after taking its payload into orbit.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A Tokyo company aimed for the moon with its own private lander Sunday, blasting off atop a SpaceX rocket with the United Arab Emirates' first lunar rover and a toylike robot from Japan that's designed to roll around up there in the gray dust. It will take nearly five months for the lander and its experiments to reach the moon. The company ispace designed its craft to use minimal fuel to save money and leave more room for cargo. By contrast, NASA's Orion crew capsule with test dummies took five days to reach the moon last month. The lunar flyby mission ends Sunday with a Pacific splashdown.

One day in late September a box-shaped spacecraft weighing approximately half a ton will slam into an asteroid seven million miles away from Earth at a speed of 15,000mph, in a bid to knock it into a new orbit. This suicide mission by a craft the size of a golf cart is not just a self-indulgent experiment dreamed up by NASA scientists with money to burn. The very future of mankind could depend on its success because the $330 million (£269 million) Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART, for short) may well provide the answer to a problem that has preoccupied astronomers for centuries: what to do when an asteroid is on a collision course with our planet. 'This is a mission for planet Earth -- all the peoples of Earth -- because we would all be threatened,' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who added that Dart has'turned science fiction into science fact'. Ever since the 1980s, when scientists first realised that the six-mile-wide Chicxulub crater off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula had been left by an asteroid whose impact triggered the mass destruction of all non-avian dinosaurs, Hollywood has latched on to the blockbuster potential of such a storyline. Films such as Armageddon, Deep Impact and, most recently, Don't Look Up, have all made millions at the Box Office by playing on our fear of an extinction-level event triggered by a planet-killing asteroid.

Work is due to start on the world's first'space hotel' in low Earth orbit in 2025 - and it will come equipped with restaurants, a cinema, spa and rooms for 400 people. Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the Voyager Station could be operational as early as 2027, with the infrastructure built in orbit around the Earth. The space station will be a large circle and rotate to generate artificial gravity that will be set at a similar level to the gravity found on the surface of the Moon. Voyager Station's hotel will include many of the features you might expect from a cruise ship, including themed restaurants, a health spa and a cinema. It will feature a series of pods attached to the outside of the rotating ring and some of these pods could be sold to the likes of NASA and ESA for space research.

Work is due to start on the world's first'space hotel' in low Earth orbit in 2025 - and it will come equipped with restaurants, a cinema, spa and rooms for 400 people. Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the Voyager Station could be operational as early as 2027, with the infrastructure built in orbit around the Earth. The space station will be a large circle and rotate to generate artificial gravity that will be set at a similar level to the gravity found on the surface of the Moon. Voyager Station's hotel will include many of the features you might expect from a cruise ship, including themed restaurants, a health spa and a cinema. It will feature a series of pods attached to the outside of the rotating ring and some of these pods could be sold to the likes of NASA and ESA for space research.

SpaceX is the undisputed rock star of the Space Coast's commercial launch boom. Their social media plays a role. Video posted Feb. 19, 2017 Rachael L Thomas, FLORIDA TODAY Space exploration is serious business. Missions cost tens of millions of dollars and frequently put human lives on the line. That's probably why rockets and spacecraft tend to have serious-sounding names.

A SpaceX Falcon rocket launched from Florida on Friday Morning, going to the International Space Station. It's hauling nearly 6,000 pounds of cargo, including the first robot with artificial intelligence bound for space. The rocket is carrying cargo to the International Space Station. Nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies and experiments, including the first test of artificial intelligence in space, are on their way to the International Space Station after a stunning pre-dawn Friday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule blasted off at 5:42 a.m. from Launch Complex 40.

Watch SpaceX launch its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center with a Korean communications satellite and land the first stage on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the U.S. government's secret Zuma mission stands vertical on Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A. The rocket launch was delayed Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017. CAPE CANAVERAL -- Could a secret U.S. government spacecraft be bound for a rendezvous with a spy satellite or even the International Space Station? Little is known about the mission called Zuma, targeting a launch as early as 8 p.m. Friday, the opening of a two-hour window, from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

On Monday, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first to re-fly a cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station and back, according to Space.com. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a Dragon spacecraft onboard, left Earth on June 3, carrying over 4,100 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station. It successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of the California coast on Monday morning at 8:14 a.m. SpaceX planned to take the spacecraft back to Long Beach, California after it landed, remove important cargo and send it to Houston, Texas for NASA analysis, according to a NASA blog post. Afterward, Dragon would return to a SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas.