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Orbiting a lunar future

NASA, Outer space

As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon under Artemis, the agency has identified 13 candidates for landing regions near the lunar South Pole.

To select the regions, technologists used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiters.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon and is essential as NASA plans future human and robotic missions to the Moon.

Each region identified contains multiple potential landing sites for Artemis III, which will be the first of the Artemis missions to bring crew to the lunar surface, including the first woman to set foot on the Moon.