NASA is gearing up for a bold new era of lunar exploration with three advanced instruments set to investigate the Moon’s ...

Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist’s toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the moon’s dusty surface.

Plans had called for the 7.5-foot Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface this weekend.

Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft’s scheduled landing on the moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be going well.