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Lunar Trailblazer

  • NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends

    NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer ended its mission to the Moon on July 31. Despite extensive efforts, mission operators were unable to establish two-way communications after losing contact with the spacecraft the day following its Feb. 26 launch. Read more about Lunar Trailblazer’s end of mission

  • NASA Extends Efforts to Recontact Lunar Trailblazer Until Early July

    NASA has extended recovery efforts of its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft from mid-June to early July. Updated modeling of the spacecraft’s trajectory by the mission team indicates lighting conditions will continue to be favorable and may provide enough sunlight for the spacecraft’s solar panels to recharge its batteries to an operational state and turn on its […]

  • NASA Focuses Lunar Trailblazer Recontact Efforts Through Mid-June

    As NASA continues work to reestablish command of its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, the mission team’s modeling indicates that the lighting conditions from May through mid-June are favorable to provide enough sunlight on the spacecraft’s solar panels to recharge the batteries to an operational level and potentially regain command of the spacecraft. Contact with the small […]

  • NASA Continuing Efforts to Contact, Command Lunar Trailblazer

    The mission operations team for NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer at Caltech’s IPAC is continuing efforts to re-establish communications with the small satellite. Based on telemetry before the loss of signal last week and ground-based radar data collected March 2, the team believes the spacecraft is spinning slowly in a low-power state. They will continue to monitor …

  • NASA Working to Reestablish Communications With Lunar Trailblazer

    Following the successful deployment of NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 26, mission operators at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena, California, established communications with the small satellite at 5:13 p.m. PST, as expected. The team subsequently received engineering data, or telemetry, indicating intermittent power system issues. They lost communication with the …

  • Initial Signal Acquired, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Powered Up

    Mission operators at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena, California, have received an initial signal from NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer. This indicates that the small spacecraft has powered up. As planned, the signal was acquired by Deep Space Station 36, one of the radio frequency antennas at NASA’s Deep Space Network Canberra complex in Australia. The operations team …

  • NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Spacecraft Separates From Falcon 9 Second Stage

    The second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 completed its Earth departure burn, and NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft has separated from it and is flying independently. The spacecraft is now expected to carry out a series of automated processes, including powering itself up, deploying its solar arrays, and orienting them toward the Sun. Starting about …

  • NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Spacecraft Completes Environmental Testing

    A silver and gold spacecraft with one solar array outstretched sits backlit in a large, dark white room.

    NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft recently completed the shaking, chilling, baking, and other testing needed to ensure it can survive launch and the harsh conditions of space. Now that environmental testing is done, the spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, is putting the orbiter and its science instruments through flight system software tests …