Lunar regolith is a layer of loosely-packed rocky grains deposited on the lunar surface, whose physical and chemical properties are important for deciphering the geologic history and formulating lunar spacecraft design. Probing the thermal conductivity of the lunar regolith has drawn a lot of attention since the Apollo era. Early measurements focused on the Apollo regolith samples, but the experimental data were available only at a few landing sites at the nearside.

The CE-4 spacecraft landed at 45.4446°S, 177.5991°E, on the floor of Von Kármán crater, on January 3rd, 2019. After landing, the Yutu-2 rover was released via the deployed two rails.

NASA began fueling its new moon rocket early Monday for liftoff on a test flight to put a crew capsule into lunar orbit for the first time in 50 years.

Thunderstorms delayed the fueling operation by an hour. The threat of lightning diminished enough to allow the launch team to proceed with loading the rocket's tanks.

A fuel leak and then an engine problem during final liftoff preparations led NASA to call off the launch of its mighty new moon rocket Monday on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard.

The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest and could be off until next month.

With the help of artificial intelligence, an international research team led by ETH Zurich has explored the moon's permanently shadowed regions. The information they have obtained about the area's surface properties will help to identify suitable locations for future lunar missions.

It was 1972 when the last humans landed on the moon. The Apollo program was discontinued thereafter. But interest in the moon has been rekindled. With China having landed a robot—and raised its flag—on the far side of the moon in 2020, NASA is planning for its Artemis program to land in the lunar south pole region, probably between 2025 and 2028.