By Agence France-Presse

TOKYO–Japan’s first lunar probe successfully entered the moon’s orbit on the most extensive mission there since the US Apollo program, officials said Friday.

The Kaguya probe, which was launched last month on a domestically developed rocket, appears to be functioning normally, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

“We have confirmed that the satellite’s condition is normal,” it added.

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By Mira Oberman
Agence France-Presse

CHICAGO–Snuggled into a huge belt of warm dust, an Earth-like planet appears to be forming some 424 light years away, scientists said Wednesday.

At somewhere between 10 and 16 million years old, the planet’s solar system is still in its “very young adolescence,” but is at the perfect age for forming Earth-like planets, said lead researcher Carey Lisse of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.

The massive dust ring surrounding one of the system’s two stars is smack in the middle of the system’s “habitable zone” where water could one day exist on a rocky planet.

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AS we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch, which marked the dawn of the Space Age and the start of the Space Race, it seems fitting that several nations are eyeing a return to the moon.

What’s also interesting is that the US, which sent men to the moon in response to the shock of seeing the USSR take the lead in the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik, is practically conceding that China might beat it back to the moon.

Here’s an excerpt from the Discovery Channel article:

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HERE’S a great video from ReelNASA that shows the two solid rocket boosters that power the Space Shuttle.

Follow their journey from launch to splashdown.

By Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK–Internet search giant Google on Thursday offered $30 million in prize money for companies to land a robot camera to roam on the moon and send back high-resolution snaps and data.

Google launched Google Moon, a page on its site with images mapping out stretches of the orb’s pock-marked surface. They are compiled from photographs taken by previous moon missions including the historic first landing by the Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and crew in 1969.

The site is aimed at encouraging companies interested in the challenge, giving them visuals of the moon “so the teams can scout locations” for a robot camera, Google joked in a blog announcing the competition, launched jointly with the X Prize Foundation which promotes technological innovation.

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