Later this year, two spacecraft are scheduled for launch on missions to land somewhere near the rim of Shackleton Crater, an impact basin near the Moon's south pole harboring an immense reservoir of water ice.
The two landers will arguably be the most ambitious robotic missions ever sent to the Moon. The Endurance spacecraft, built by Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin, will become the largest lunar lander in history, exceeding the size of NASA's Apollo lunar module that ferried crews to and from the lunar surface more than 50 years ago. China's Chang'e 7 mission will feature a smaller lander, but the project also includes an orbiter, rover, and a hopper drone to scout for hidden ice deposits.
Blue Origin's Endurance lander departed NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday for a trip by barge back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for final preparations to launch on the company's heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. The lander underwent a comprehensive test in Houston to ensure it can survive the extreme temperatures on the airless lunar surface. Two days earlier, Chang'e 7 arrived at a spaceport on Hainan Island in the South China Sea to be integrated with China's own heavy-lifter: the Long March 5 rocket.
