Artemis Human Moon Landing Announcement Expected as USA and Japan Leaders Meet
Lunar cooperation to be topic of President Biden meeting with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on 22-23 May stop of Asia tour, with Kyodo News of Toyko reporting a joint statement on Japan Astronaut participation in Artemis landings and plan outlining broad space cooperation to be released during summit; Commercial enterprise ispace and space agency JAXA planning robotic Moon landings HAKUTO-R and SLIM in late 2022 / 2023; 4th nation to launch a satellite, ISS partner nation Japan hopes to be 2nd nation with citizen on Moon
With Artemis 3 crewed landings planned for 2025-2026 including First Woman / Person of Color on the Moon, landing / EVA sites are being considered by space agencies and independent ventures with special focus on elevated surrounds of Shackleton Crater, presumed initial area of exploration for Artemis Era Astronauts; The 2 highest peaks in the region – Malapert Mountain and Leibniz Beta, with ~ 5 and 6km respective elevations, allow combinations of Earth visibility, illumination, and line of sight to ongoing human and robotic activity at Shackleton as initial settlement occurs
NASA SLS Mega Moon Rocket set to resume WDR at KSC Launch Pad 39B as Axiom-1 private mission heads to ISS on Crew Dragon Endeavour; 12U cubesat CAPSTONE to test near-rectilinear halo lunar orbit with Rocket Lab launch window opening 3 May at Mahia, NZ; Intuitive Machines 1st lander aims for NET June launch; Roscosmos Luna-25 lander on track for 23 July launch from Vostochny after Doppler radar-based landing system test success; ISRO Chandrayaan-3 lander and Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter NET Aug; Intuitive Machines still set to deliver TRIDENT drill / MSolo spectrometer NLT December
NASA Artemis 1 undergoing 45-hour WDR at KSC 39B ahead of June Moon launch, LOX/LH2 core propellent tank fill-up set for 3 April (06:40 EDT); CAPSTONE launch window 3-15 May, Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter launching NET Aug; Intuitive Machines partnering with Jeff Koons: Moon Phases NFT project to land sculpture within Oceanus Procellarum via Nova-C NET June; Roscosmos Luna-25 still officially set for July; ISRO Chandrayaan-3 on track for Q3 launch; Astrobotic Peregrine to be unveiled at Keystone Space Conference 20-21 April, launching NET Nov; ispace and JAXA SLIM launching Q4
SLS stacked with Orion Crew Capsule on KSC Launch Pad 39B awaiting Wet Dress Rehearsal, with NET May launch to orbit Moon; Rocket Lab Capstone rectilinear halo orbit pathfinder to launch between 3-15 May; Dubai Week reports Roscosmos and ISRO on track for August launch to Boguslavsky crater (Luna-25) and summer launch to a plain between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters (Chandrayaan-3); ispace HAKUTO-R (NET Oct), Astrobotic Peregrine (NET Nov) landers to be powered by Agile Space Industries thrusters