Americans may have to wrap their heads around a new spacesuit for future moonwalkers in 2020. NASA's new spacesuit will come in two versions that protect future astronauts on the surface of the moon, as well as during travel to and from the International Space Station.
NASA expects to decide sometime in 2008 whether the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, the agency's space shuttle replacement, will typically splash down off the California coast or touch down on dry land when it returns from space.
India's unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 is all set for launch in April 2008.
The charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on Chang'e-1, China's first lunar orbiter, has started imaging probes on the dark side of the moon and captured photos of parts of this region, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Tuesday.
Despite funding uncertainty, NASA is on track to return humans to the moon by 2020 and set up a lunar outpost to serve as a springboard to explore Mars, officials said Monday.
The UK could soon have its first mission to the Moon - an orbiting spacecraft that would fire instruments into the lunar surface. The "penetrators" would yield new information about the rocky interior.