Sources: National Geographic
NASA begins the countdown for the launch of Artemis II, set to be the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, with liftoff scheduled for 1 April. 2026-03-30
NASA states that it plans to pause the Lunar Gateway project and redirect efforts toward developing infrastructure for sustained operations on the Moon's surface, including a future moonbase. 2026-03-24
NASA's "Orion" spacecraft performs a flyby of the Moon, coming within 130 km of the lunar surface before entering into a lunar orbit. 2022-11-21
NASA confirms water has been spotted on the sunlit surface of the moon. 2020-10-26
NASA officially selects SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics to build its next-generation lunar lander to carry American astronauts to the Moon by 2024. 2020-04-30
NASA announces it has completed its first full-power test of the Kilopower nuclear reactor for space. NASA intends to use the technology to power exploration missions to the Moon and Mars. 2018-05-2
U.S. President Donald Trump signs the "Space Policy Directive 1" that establishes the foundation for a crewed mission to the Moon, while also maintaining a longer-term NASA goal of landing a man on Mars. 2017-12-11
NASA publishes LRO images of the two craters on the Moon, where twin GRAIL probes ended their gravity-mapping mission in December 2012. 2013-03-19
NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft crash into a mile-high cliff near the Lunar North Pole to close out a successful mission to map the Moon's gravity field with unprecedented precision. 2012-12-17
NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon. 2011-12-31