One American and two Russians blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft on a quick trip to the International Space Station.

GOES-U, the fourth and final satellite in NOAA's GOES-R Series of advanced geostationary satellites, recently completed rigorous testing to ensure it can withstand the harsh conditions of launch and orbiting in space 22,236 miles above Earth.

The testing process spanned nearly a year. During thermal vacuum testing, completed in November 2022, GOES-U was placed in a large 29-foot wide by 65-foot deep (9 meter by 20 meter) chamber and subjected to a vast range of temperatures, soaring as high as 188 degrees Fahrenheit (87 degrees Celsius) and dropping as low as minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 55 degrees Celsius) to simulate the extreme temperatures of launch and the space environment.

In February 2023, GOES-U completed vibration testing, which mimics the stresses it will experience during launch to ensure the satellite doesn't have structural weaknesses.

On August 23 the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon's south pole, a location that has always been of particular interest to scientists due to the unique conditions created by the planet's extremities.

The moon rover, Chandrayaan-3, which recently completed its 14-day mission, made history by landing on the lunar south pole. Dr. Laura McKemmish, an astrochemist from UNSW Sydney, explains the significance of the mission and what the future holds for lunar exploration.

"This is the first landing of India on the moon, and it will make India the fourth country ever to land on the moon," says Dr. McKemmish. "The ability of our global civilization to go into space exploration is really, really crucial to enable humankind as a global community to explore elsewhere in the universe."

Interest in the southern pole of the moon stems primarily from the fact that scientists have been aware of the presence of frozen water there, and locating water is a large part of Chandrayaan-3's mission. "Identifying frozen bodies of water on the moon is a really important gateway for further space discovery in our solar system.