Posted: Sun, Feb 25 9:46 AM ET (1446 GMT)
Intuitive Machines became the first company to land a spacecraft on the Moon, but the lander appears to be on its side. The Nova-C lander touched down in the south polar regions of the moon at 6:23 pm EST (2323 GMT) Thursday, although it took about 15 minutes for the company to confirm it was receiving signals from the spacecraft. At a briefing Friday, the company said telemetry indicates the lander appears to be on its side, possibly toppling over on landing. That has limited the lander's ability to communicate, but it is sending some data and generating power. The IM-1 mission is the first privately developed spacecraft to land on the moon after three failed attempts over the last five years, and is the first American spacecraft to soft-land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft is carrying six NASA payloads and six payloads from other customers, with plans to operate on the surface for about a week.

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•  SpaceNews article
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•  Houston Chronicle article
•  ABC News article
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Posted: Sun, Feb 25 9:40 AM ET (1440 GMT)
China launched a classified satellite to geostationary orbit Friday morning. A Long March 5 lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 6:30 a.m. Eastern and deployed the TJS-11 satellite. The satellite is described as being mainly used to carry out multi-band high-speed satellite communication technology verification. TJS satellites are thought by observers to serve a range of purposes including early warning and signals intelligence, and are part of growing Chinese capabilities in GEO that have raised concerns among U.S. Space Force officials.

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•  SpaceNews article
•  Reuters article
•  Xinhua article

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from Vandenberg
Posted: Sun, Feb 25 9:36 AM ET (1436 GMT)
SpaceX launched a set of Starlink satellites from California Thursday night. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 11:11 pm EST (0411 GMT Friday) and...

Varda capsule lands in Utah
Posted: Sun, Feb 25 9:35 AM ET (1435 GMT)
A commercial capsule reentered and landed in the Utah desert Wednesday. Varda Space Industries said the capsule from its W-Series 1 spacecraft landed at...

Defunct ESA satellite reenters
Posted: Sun, Feb 25 9:33 AM ET (1433 GMT)
A defunct ESA satellite harmlessly reentered Wednesday over the Pacific. ESA said its ERS-2 satellite reentered at around 12:12 pm EST (1712 GMT)...