India - Space Exploration Mission to the moon: Chandrayaan-2 launch: How to watch the first mission to the moon's south pole - by Jackson Ryan

After several delays, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is set to launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission this Sunday with plans to become the first nation to land at the lunar south pole. Fittingly, the landmark mission is set to depart a few days shy of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, humanity's first crewed lunar landing. India's mission won't feature humans, but Chandrayaan-2 is carrying three lunar exploration robots able to survey the moon from both the surface and the sky.

The launch is currently scheduled for Sunday, July 14 at 2:21 p.m. PT and will take place at India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai. The payload of Chandrayaan-2 consists of a lunar orbiter, a lunar lander and a lunar rover, and will be launched atop the ISRO-developed GSLV Mk-III rocket. That rocket is about half as powerful as the SpaceX Falcon 9 and will put Chandrayaan-2 into what is known as an "Earth parking orbit" before the module uses its own power to extend its orbit and eventually position itself for a lunar rendezvous.

The launch is currently scheduled for Sunday, July 14 at 2:21 p.m. PT and will take place at India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai. The payload of Chandrayaan-2 consists of a lunar orbiter, a lunar lander and a lunar rover, and will be launched atop the ISRO-developed GSLV Mk-III rocket. That rocket is about half as powerful as the SpaceX Falcon 9 and will put Chandrayaan-2 into what is known as an "Earth parking orbit" before the module uses its own power to extend its orbit and eventually position itself for a lunar rendezvous.

Provided Chandrayaan-2 launches on time, it is expected to reach the moon on Sept. 6, 2019. If it can achieve the difficult feat of landing on the surface, India will become just the fourth nation to complete a soft landing in history, following the US, Russia and China, which currently has the Chang'e 4 rover operating on the far side of the moon.

Read more: Chandrayaan-2 launch: How to watch the first mission to the moon's south pole - CNET

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The Moon: Tonight Is A Record-Breaking Supermoon - The Biggest In 68 Years

The Supermoon as it was seen above Almere, The Netherlands

There will be an amazing spectacle tonight as the first supermoon in almost 70 years appears in the night sky. In fact, if you’re younger than 68 you have never witnessed this record-breaking supermoon in your lifetime.

Tomorrow morning, November 14th, the moon will be the closest it has been to Earth since 1948. It will appear 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the average monthly full moon. Of course that’s dependent on hopefully viewing the supermoon without the obstruction of a cloudy night. Thankfully it appears most of the United States will remain mostly clear for tonight’s supermoon.

If you happen to miss the moon tonight, you’ll have to wait until November 25, 2034 so take some time to go outside tonight and witness the impressive moon.

A supermoon typically refers to the concurrence of two phenomena. One is when the moon is within 90% of its closest position to Earth in its orbit. Since the moon’s orbit is elliptical the moon during perigee is about 30,000 miles closer to the Earth than the apogee.

The other phenomenon is syzygy, which is when the Earth, sun and moon all line up as the moon orbits Earth. When both a perigee and syzygy occur and the moon is located on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun we get a supermoon.

Photo credit: Almere-Digest
Read more: onight Is A Record-Breaking Supermoon - The Biggest In 68 Years

Space Exploration: Russian, European space agency chiefs discuss Mars, Moon projects

"The chiefs of the agencies exchanged opinions on further cooperation in the ExoMars project and possible areas of cooperation in automatic lunar research projects and summed up intermediate results of interaction in manned programs," says a report of the Roscosmos press service obtained by Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.

The Roscosmos and ESA heads scheduled a number of working meetings for this year. Ostapenko also had a meeting with Arianespace President - General Director Stephane Israel.

"After making a brief review of Arianespace operations, the heads of Roscosmos and Arianespace discussed progress on current projects and a number of prospective bilateral cooperation plans," the report said.

The Roscosmos head met with executives of some of the leading European rocket and space companies in Paris.

It was reported earlier that Roscosmos and Arianespace had initialed an agreement on the additional delivery of seven Soyuz-ST launch vehicles for missions from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, South America.

Read more: Russian, European space agency chiefs discuss Mars, Moon projects - News - World - The Voice of Russia: News, Breaking news, Politics, Economics, Business, Russia, International current events, Expert opinion, podcasts, Video