December 24, 2021 – The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA are heading into the holiday break ahead of celebrating invaluable lunar exploration milestones in 2022. In just that spirit, ESA’s Estrack network is preparing to support three pivotal Moon missions in 2024 while NASA is set to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing with a series of nationwide events.
Next year, ESTRACK will be key in connecting Earth and the Moon’s satellite communication network. Among these are the Intuitive Machines IM-1, the first recorded non-governmental attempt at a soft Moon landing on February 22, 2024. Norwegian Kongsberg Satellite Services, KSAT, supplied the spacecraft-to-Earth mission control communication link. “Supporting the IM-1 mission was a valuable experience for us,” continued Adrian Segura Cabrera, ESA Ground Operations Engineer, Kourou station, outlining the increasing scope of his involvement with different moon-bound missions.
Not only IM-1 but also the ESA station in Kourou played a great role in the Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission of China, launched on May 3. The mission was bearing ESA’s first scientific instrument on the surface of the Moon, which became the first to detect negative ions. The Chang’e-6 mission returned nearly two kilograms of samples from the Moon’s far side on 25 June, and the ESA Maspalomas station supported critical tracking during the re-entry.
Later this year, Japanese company Ispace will launch its HAKUTO-R Mission 2, which carries a European-built lunar rover. The spacecraft will be kept in constant contact by ESA ground stations. “We have completed our validation tests and are ready to provide tracking and communication support from launch to landing and throughout surface operations,”, says Gerhard Billig, Service Manager at ESA’s ESOC mission operations center.
Meanwhile, 55 years have passed since the moon landing by Apollo 11, and from July 15 to July 25, events are prepared within the celebration of the day. Activities include the honoring of technological achievements during the Apollo era and the continuous efforts of the Artemis campaign, seeding the ambitious goals of landing the first woman, person of color, and international astronaut on the Moon.
Major activities range from the Artemis II SLS core stage leaving NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility to the opening of the Dorothy Vaughan Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Other events span from a model rocket competition at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to a panel discussion at San Diego Comic-Con titled “Exploring the Moon: the Artemis Generation.”
In this regard, as these two agencies push their moon exploration, it underlines their common commitment to scientific discoveries and technological innovations, moving the quest for future generations by pure efforts into lurking among the stars.