What a time to be alive, and to be working on the Moon.
On April 1, a day in North America known for jokes and false starts, Artemis II launched almost in defiance of the date itself, lifting off right at the beginning of its two-hour launch window. It marked humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than 50 years, and on the following day, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans left Earth orbit and set out toward the Moon.
Those four extraordinarily talented astronauts are now on a roughly 10-day journey around the Moon. Christina Koch is the first woman on a lunar mission. Victor Glover is the first Black astronaut on a lunar mission. Jeremy Hansen is the first Canadian on a lunar mission. Watching SLS and Orion deploy their intricate systems has been an honor.
By now, we have all seen videos circulating of the launch itself. One especially striking perspective came from a nearby plane, watching the crew rise through the clouds and leave Earth behind. It hints at a nearby future where air traffic controllers and everyday passengers may one day look out the window and see people launching to the Moon as part of the texture of ordinary life.
Its hard not to feel the significance of this moment in history. As Jeremy said just before liftoff, “We are going for all humanity.” Ad luna, Artemis II!
Open Lunar is Hiring!
Open Lunar is seeking a Project and Partnership Lead to spearhead the Lunar Ledger’s growth and maturity, while supporting Open Lunar’s evolving portfolio of projects. The Project and Partnership Lead is critical to the development and execution of the Ledger project, especially in driving the Ledger through its next phase of maturity as both a coordination platform and a governance-enabling public good.
The role manages product definition and development, overseeing external web developers and managing stakeholder inputs to drive product build. The Project and Partnership Lead also enables product growth to ensure adoption across diverse stakeholders. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with reviews starting right away.
Artemis II marks more than a technical achievement. It is a reminder that humanity’s return to the Moon should reflect our highest aspirations, including collaboration, transparency, and a shared commitment to the future we build there.
Open Lunar Foundation and COSPAR Sign MOU on the Lunar Ledger and Information Sharing to Advance Lunar Coordination
The Open Lunar Foundation and the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on March 20, 2026, at the Earth-Space Governance Conference in Leiden, Netherlands.
How can countries and companies better coordinate Moon missions for mutual benefit? Experts weigh in.
As lunar missions multiply and converge on the same scarce, high-value sites, the absence of basic coordination frameworks isn't just a bureaucratic gap — it's a recipe for real conflict. Three international experts break down why information-sharing remains so hard, and what a practical path forward might look like: Martin Reynders, an experienced space lawyer working internationally, Marieta Valdivia Lefort, Policy & Diversity Officer at Royal Astronomical Society, and Dr. Guoyu Wang, Deputy Director of CNSA’s Space Law Center and the Dean of the Academy of Air, Space Policy and Law in Beijing
In partnership with JAOPS and Dymon — the team behind the YAOKI rover, which flew on the Intuitive Machines Mission 2 last year — the Lunar Ledger will host the first lunar mission dataset this year as part of our public launch. This builds on the YAOKI team’s public release of raw images from their mission last year, which included some of the first images of a crater rim from the lunar surface.
Credit: Yaoki
Webinar: What do commercial missions mean for the future of lunar data?
Watch Open Lunar on Linkedin for the announcement of a webinar in the coming weeks to learn more about our data release plan and see some of the first images and telemetry from the YAOKI mission. You’ll hear directly from YAOKI mission operators, and we’ll be in conversation with scientists joining us from COSPAR to discuss why data sharing is critical to advancing lunar science, a topic we explored last year in a blog by Jatan Mehta about critical gaps in lunar orbital data, and opportunities for commercial missions to fill those gaps.
Open Lunar is hosting an open community Zoom call to discuss Artemis II, including its impact on exploration, operations, cooperation, competition, and governance. Everyone is welcome! The call runs under Chatham House rules.
The call will be held on 15th April at 16:00 BST / 11:00 EDT / 08:00 PDT
Open Lunar at United Nations COPUOS LSC — Meet us there!
Samuel Jardine will be in Vienna representing Open Lunar at the sixty-fifth session of the UNCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee from the 19th to 24th April. During the session, Sam will be engaging with governments and other stakeholders on key Open Lunar initiatives, including the Lunar Ledger, which has currently launched a closed beta for government users, as well as a number of forthcoming collaborations.
Earth-Space Sustainability Conference Attendance
Director of Industry Integration, Mehak Sarang, represented the Open Lunar Foundation at the 2nd Earth-Space Sustainability Conference in Leiden, Netherlands. The conference programme focused on sustainability within the broader context of the Earth-Space system. Attendees included scientists, academics, policymakers, and space law professionals. The conference co-chair included Open Lunar board member Tanja Masson-Zwan, representing the University of Leiden.
Open Lunar signed an MOU with COSPAR at the Earth-Space Governance Conference in Leiden. This agreement reflects a shared commitment to scientific transparency, information exchange, and responsible lunar stewardship. Advancing our scientific understanding of the Moon is foundational to responsible governance. This partnership is an important step toward building the collaborative infrastructure that lunar exploration requires — aligning the scientific community, industry, and policymakers as activity on the Moon grows.
On a panel regarding a “Stewardship Plan for the Moon”, Open Lunar highlighted projects that work to better define what constitutes responsible or sustainable behavior for lunar actors. Designated Lunar Areas examines the implications of certain policies or norms on the lunar environment — allowing us to model behavior and understand the effects before norms solidify and harden, causing runaway issues such as the orbital debris environment in low-Earth orbit.
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