NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA says it's investigating whether an object that crashed into the roof of a home in southwest Florida last month came from the international space station.

Workers for the space agency picked up the object from the homeowner in Naples, Florida, last week and took it to the Kennedy Space Center, across the state in Cape Canaveral, where it is being analyzed to determine its origin, NASA spokesman Josh Finch said Thursday in an email.

"More information will be available once the analysis is complete," Finch said.

Space debris typically burns up while reentering Earth's atmosphere.

The object pierced the roof of a home owned by Alejandro Otero on March 8. He told television station WINK that he was notified by his son about the crashing object while he was on vacation. He came back early to check it out and found a cylindrical-shaped object weighing nearly 2 pounds (0.91 kilograms) that had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Otero said. “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Not able to make it to the path of totality on Monday? There are plenty of other celestial events to still look forward to.

Whether it's a lunar eclipse, common sightings of Starlink or the International Space station, or annual meteor showers, 2024 will be full of opportunities for astronomy fans.

There's already been a penumbral lunar eclipse -- which can look like a full moon -- this March. You can next catch a partial lunar eclipse on Sept. 18. You'll have to wait until March 14, 2025, however, to see another total lunar eclipse.

It won't be long at all for Connecticut to see another meteor shower, however. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, associated with the Thatcher comet, will be visible in the predawn hours from April 21 to April 22. It's estimated that you can see 10 meteors per hour.

The Eta Aquarid shower will be in the predawn hours from May 4 to May 5, producing up to 10 meteors an hour. The meteors are associated with Halley's Comet, which won't return until 2061.

Other meteor showers this year include:

• Delta Aquarid - July 29-30
• Perseid - Aug. 11-13
• Draconid: Oct. 8-9
• Orionid: Oct 21-22
• Northern Taurid: Nov. 8-9
• Leonid: Nov. 17-18
• Andromedid: Nov. 25-27
• Geminid: Dec. 13-14
• Ursid: Dec. 21-22

While you won't have a clear view of the International Space Station over the next few days, NASA keeps an interactive map where you can see upcoming sightings, how long they will be visible for and where to look.

What about the Starlink satellites? An online tool can track down the dates with the best visibility.

For the New Haven area, you'll have average visibility at 4:56 a.m. on Saturday. The satellites will look like a string of pearls in the sky for about four minutes. Starlink will shrink back to "poor" visibility for the next several days.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian space capsule with two women and one man safely landed in a steppe in Kazakhstan on Saturday after their missions aboard the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-24 carrying Russia’s Oleg Novitsky, NASA's Loral O'Hara and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus touched down southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan at 12:17 p.m. Kazakh time (0717 GMT).

Those remaining at the orbiting outpost are NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Tracy Dyson and Jeannette Epps as well as Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.

O’Hara arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 15, 2023, spending a total of 204 days there, NASA said.

Novitsky and Vasilevskaya blasted off to space on March 23, two days later than initially planned. The launch of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying them and Dyson, scheduled for March 21, was aborted at the very last minute due to a voltage drop in a power source, according to Yury Borisov, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

The delay resulted in a two-day, 34-orbit trip to the space station for the crew. If the launch had gone as scheduled, the journey would have been much shorter, requiring only two orbits.

The space station, which has served as a symbol of post-Cold War international cooperation, is now one of the last remaining areas of collaboration between Russia and the West amid tensions over Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. NASA and its partners hope to continue operating the orbiting outpost until 2030.

Russia has continued to rely on modified versions of Soviet-designed rockets for commercial satellites, as well as crews and cargo to the space station.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making an official visit to the United States this week. He will hold a summit with President Joe Biden that's meant to achieve a major upgrading of their defense alliance.

He will also join a first-ever summit of the U.S., Japanese and Philippine leaders in Washington to showcase their cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

The Associated Press explains the significance of Kishida’s visit and the two summits.

WHAT DOES KISHIDA WANT TO ACHIEVE?

The biggest event during the weeklong trip is his summit with Biden on Wednesday. Kishida hopes to further strengthen the alliance as China's influence grows in the Indo-Pacific.

Kishida is also reaching out to the American public to showcase Japan’s contribution to the U.S. economy and ensure stable relations regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election later this year.

Kishida, who has pushed sweeping changes fortifying Japan’s defense capabilities since taking office in 2021, will emphasize that Japan and the U.S. are now global partners working to maintain a rules-based international order, and that Japan is willing to take on a greater international role in security, economy and space to help Washington.

Expanding arms equipment and technology cooperation between the two countries and other like-minded partners is also highly important, Kishida on Friday told selected media, including AP.

Kishida, stung by a corruption scandal, needs a successful U.S. visit to shore up low support ratings at home.

WHAT IS A STATE VISIT?

As a state guest, Kishida will be welcomed in a White House arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, a formal state dinner and other official events. He is the fifth state guest of Biden, who has also hosted leaders of India, Australia, South Korea and France, underscoring America’s focus on Indo-Pacific security partnerships.

Kishida is the first Japanese leader to make a state visit since Shinzo Abe in 2015. Abe made a major revision to the interpretation of Japan’s pacifist Constitution, allowing its self-defense-only principle to also cover its ally, the United States.

WHY THE DEFENSE FOCUS?

Defense tops the agenda because of growing worries about threats from China, North Korea and Russia. Chinese coast guard ships regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan. Beijing says Taiwan is part of its territory and will be brought under control by force if necessary.

There are also worries about North Korean nuclear and missile threats and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kishida has warned that the war in Europe could lead to conflict in East Asia, suggesting that a lax attitude to Russia emboldens China.

“While we maintain the Japan-U.S. alliance as a cornerstone, we believe it is important to cooperate with like-minded countries, including the Philippines,” Kishida said.

WHAT ARE THE SUMMIT'S MAIN ISSUES?

Biden and Kishida are expected to agree on a plan to modernize their military command structures so they can better operate together. America stations 50,000 troops in Japan. The Japanese Self Defense Force is preparing to restructure so it has a unified command for ground, air and naval forces by March 2025.

Also expected are new initiatives for defense industry cooperation, including co-production of weapons, possibly a new missile, and the repair and maintenance of American warships and other equipment in Japan to help U.S. operations in the western Pacific.

Japan’s possible participation in a U.S.-U.K.-Australia security partnership to develop and share advanced military capabilities, including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonics, may also come up.

Kishida and Biden are also expected to confirm Japan’s participation in NASA’s Artemis moon program and its contribution of a moon rover developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and the inclusion of a Japanese astronaut. The rover, which comes at a roughly $2 billion cost, is the most expensive contribution to the mission by a non-U.S. partner to date, a U.S. official said.

WHAT'S JAPAN'S DEFENSE AIM?

Since adopting a more expansive national security strategy in 2022, Kishida’s government has taken bold steps to accelerate Japan’s military buildup. He hopes to show Tokyo is capable of elevating its security cooperation with the U.S. Kishida has pledged to double defense spending and boost deterrence against China, which Japan considers a top security threat.

Japan, working to acquire what it calls a “counterstrike” capability, has purchased 400 U.S. Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles. After prohibiting almost all weapons transfers, it has relaxed export guidelines twice in recent months, allowing the sale of lethal weapons to countries from which they were licensed and the overseas sales of a fighter jet it’s co-developing with the U.K. and Italy. The changes have allowed Japan to ship Japanese-made PAC-3 missiles to the U.S. to help replace those contributed by Washington to Ukraine.

WHAT ABOUT THE SUMMIT WITH THE PHILIPPINES?

The first-ever trilateral summit between Biden, Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. comes as the Philippines faces escalating maritime tension with China over their contested South China Sea claims.

Biden wants to show that the three maritime democracies are unified as they face aggressive Chinese action against the Philippine coast guard and its supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, according to a senior Biden administration official.

Japan has sold coastal radars to the Philippines and is now negotiating a defense agreement that would allow their troops to visit each other’s turf for joint military exercises.

The trilateral comes eight months after Biden hosted a meeting with leaders from Japan and South Korea at Camp David.

“Cooperation among our three countries are extremely important in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and in defending a free and open international order based on the rules of law,” Kishida said Monday before leaving for Washington.

WHAT HAPPENS IN NORTH CAROLINA?

Kishida also wants to highlight Japan’s economic contributions in the U.S. There is growing uncertainty in Tokyo about U.S. elections, reflected by questions about what happens if former President Donald Trump wins, though experts say there is a bipartisan consensus on a stronger U.S.-Japan alliance.

Kishida will meet with business leaders and visit Toyota’s electric vehicle battery factory under construction for a planned launch in 2025, and Honda’s business jet subsidiary in North Carolina. He will also meet students at North Carolina State University on Friday.

In his congressional speech on Thursday, Kishida said he plans to convey “what Japan and the United States want to hand down to future generations and what we need to do for them.”

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — A chilly, midday darkness fell across North America on Monday as a total solar eclipse raced across the continent, thrilling those lucky enough to behold the spectacle through clear skies.

Eclipse mania gripped all of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, as the moon swept in front of the sun, blotting out daylight. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.

It was the continent’s biggest eclipse audience ever, with a couple hundred million people living in or near the shadow’s path, plus scores of out-of-towners flocking in.

Clouds blanketed most of Texas as total solar eclipse began its diagonal dash across land, starting along Mexico’s mostly clear Pacific coast and aiming for Texas and 14 other U.S. States, before exiting into the North Atlantic near Newfoundland.

In Georgetown, Texas, the hundreds of people gathered on the Southwestern University lawn cheered when the skies cleared just in time to give spectators a clear view.

“We are really lucky,” said resident Susan Robertson. “Even with the clouds it is kind of nice because when it clears up it is like wow.”

Arkansas and northeast New England were the best bets in the U.S. New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada also looked promising.

The show got underway in the Pacific before noon EDT. As the darkness of totality reached the Mexican resort city of Mazatlan, the faces of spectators were illuminated only by the screens of their cellphones.

The cliff-hanging uncertainty added to the drama. But the overcast skies in Mesquite near Dallas didn't rattle Erin Froneberger, who was in town for business and brought along her eclipse glasses.

“We are always just rushing, rushing, rushing," she said. “But this is an event that we can just take a moment, a few seconds that it’s going to happen and embrace it.”

A festival outside Austin wrapped up early on Monday because afternoon storms were in the forecast. Festival organizers urged everyone to pack up and leave.

Sara Laneau, of Westfield, Vermont, woke up at 4 a.m. Monday to take her 16-year-old niece to nearby Jay Peak ski resort to catch the eclipse after a morning on the slopes.

“This will be a first from me and an experience of a lifetime,” said Laneau, who was dressed in a purple metallic ski suit with a solar eclipse T-shirt underneath.

At Niagara Falls State Park, tourists streamed in under cloudy skies with wagons, strollers, coolers and lawn chairs. Park officials expected a large crowd at the popular site overlooking the falls.

During Monday's full eclipse, the moon slipped right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona visible, would be long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars and maybe even a comet to pop out.

The out-of-sync darkness lasts up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That's almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.

It will take just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon's shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent.

Eye protection is needed with proper eclipse glasses and filters to look at the sun, except when it ducks completely out of sight during an eclipse.

The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas; Indianapolis; Cleveland; Buffalo, New York; and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers).

“This may be the most viewed astronomical event in history,” said National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony, standing outside the museum in Washingon, awaiting a partial eclipse.

Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station’s seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A photographer slain in a drive-by shooting. An 80-year-old patient executed in a hospital surgery room. A couple decapitated as they closed their small store for the day.

A new report released by a Haitian human rights group details the horrific violence unleashed this year by gangs who kill, rape and maim with impunity amid a political vacuum.

“This year it’s much worse, and it’s all about the gangs. They have much more power, and they occupy more space,” Pierre Espérance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, said Thursday.

The group seeks to hold those responsible accountable, and it relies on people on the ground to collect victims' names, ages and occupations to ensure they don’t remain anonymous amid a surge in slayings. The killings are difficult to track and are not reported by an underfunded and under resourced police department overwhelmed by gangs.

Overall, more than 1,550 people have been killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured from January to March 22, according to the U.N.

The report released Wednesday by the rights group found that among those killed were seven people aboard a sailboat traveling west of Port-au-Prince that was providing public transportation; nine bus passengers traveling on the main road that connects Port-au-Prince to the central Artibonite region; and a sergeant at the headquarters of Haiti’s Armed Forces who was struck in the head by a stray bullet.

Other victims include a 7-year-old boy; a woman who was director of a girls’ school; a 28-year-old basketball player; the chief accountant for the Secretariat of State Literacy; and a 26-year-old sports reporter struck by a stray bullet while at home.

The report also detailed widespread armed attacks on multiple neighborhoods in which at least 67 people were killed as gangs set fire to homes, forcing survivors to flee. Some 17,000 people have been left homeless as a result, with many cramming into overcrowded, makeshift shelters.

Some of those fleeing sought refuge on the premises of the Social Welfare and Research Institute in early March, but police pushed back the crowd in a scuffle that ended with the death of a 14-year-old boy, the report found.

Gang rapes also are common during attacks on neighborhoods, with at least 64 reported rape survivors from January to March. The number, however, is believed to be much higher given the stigma around sexual assaults.

Among those injured was a woman whose jaw was crushed by a stray bullet, the report found.

As gang violence continues unabated, medical workers have struggled to help the wounded and ill. Haiti’s biggest public hospital remains closed, along with at least a dozen other smaller hospitals and clinics. Meanwhile, basic supplies like fuel, oxygen and medications, including pain killers, are scarce given that Haiti’s main seaport remains largely shut down and its main international airport closed for more than a month.

“Consequently, patients must pay for everything,” the report stated.

In one hospital, pregnant women must provide a document proving they bought fuel in order to receive care, according to the report.

“The situation described in this document, aggravated by the violation of the right to the free circulation of goods and services, risks leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis if no measures are adopted immediately,” the report said.

Many of the killings took place after gangs launched large-scale attacks on Feb. 29, burning police stations, opening fire on the main airport and storming Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. They also plundered several consulates and set fire to the home of Haiti’s National Police chief, the report found.

The attacks were meant to prevent the return of Prime Minister Ariel Henry to Haiti. He was in Kenya at the time to push for a U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country and he now remains locked out of Haiti.

Henry has pledged to resign once a transitional council responsible for appointing a new prime minister and Cabinet is created. But the National Human Rights Defense Network said it was concerned about the council since some of the members come from sectors that “do not inspire confidence, due to their past or present behavior.”

“It is the duty of the population to remain vigilant and monitor all the decisions and actions of the council in order to prevent the state’s coffers from being plundered and acts of corruption from being perpetrated,” the report stated.

The report also detailed at least 48 kidnappings for ransom. Among the victims: a judge, a priest, a mayor, a well-known doctor, a street vendor, six nuns and nearly a dozen bus passengers.

Espérance, with the human rights group, blamed what he called complicity between gangs and police and the country’s elite for the current situation, noting that Haiti’s national police are overwhelmed.

“They’re unable to function,” he said in a phone interview. “The gangs are much more comfortable.”

On Thursday, activists and U.S. lawmakers held a news conference warning about Haiti’s situation as they called for a halt on deportations of Haitian nationals living in the U.S., among other things.

“Anything less is a death sentence,” said Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA confirmed Monday that a mystery object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.

The cylindrical object that tore through the home in Naples on March 8 was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis.

The space agency said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal. The pallet was jettisoned from the space station in 2021, and the load was expected to eventually fully burn up on entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.

The chunk of metal weighed 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and was 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall and roughly 1 1/2 inches (4 centimeters) wide.

Homeowner Alejandro Otero told television station WINK at the time that he was on vacation when his son told him what had happened. Otero came home early to check on the house, finding the object had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Otero said. “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA confirmed Monday that a mystery object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.

The cylindrical object that tore through the home in Naples on March 8 was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis.

The space agency said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal. The pallet was jettisoned from the space station in 2021, and the load was expected to eventually fully burn up on entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.

The chunk of metal weighed 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and was 4 inches (10 centimeters) tall and roughly 1 1/2 inches (4 centimeters) wide.

Homeowner Alejandro Otero told television station WINK at the time that he was on vacation when his son told him what had happened. Otero came home early to check on the house, finding the object had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Otero said. “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — For the past year, five fit, academically superior men and women have been spun in centrifuges, submerged for hours, deprived temporarily of oxygen, taught to camp in the snow, and schooled in physiology, anatomy, astronomy, meteorology, robotics, and Russian.

On Monday, the five Europeans and an Australian graduated from basic training with a new title: astronaut.

At a ceremony in Cologne, Germany, ESA added the five newcomers to its astronaut corps eligible for missions to the International Space Station, bringing the total to 11.

ESA has negotiated with NASA for three places on future Artemis moon missions, although those places will likely go to the more senior astronauts, according to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. The agency is also supplying the service module for the Orion crew capsule. ESA relies on NASA and others to get its astronauts to space.

It is only the fourth astronaut class since 1978 for the 22-country agency, chosen from among 22,500 applicants. Another twelve were selected as reservists, but were not sent to basic training. Not surprisingly, the five have resumes studded with advanced scientific and medical degrees, military training, experience flying planes, helicopters, gliders and balloons, and “leisure” activities like rowing, scuba diving, hiking, skydiving, cycling, sailing, and kayaking,

The group formed “a very good team" devoid of personal rivalry, said Aschbacher. “I told them, one of you will fly first and one will fly last, and they accepted that of course, but from the heart, not just lip service ... the team spirit is very pronounced."

Sophie Adenot, a French air force helicopter test pilot, said the group was “a fantastic crew and a fantastic team." The moment that struck her the most was leaving the airlock for underwater space walk simulation when the instructor said, “Welcome to space."

"And for me it was mind-blowing, I had goosebumps. ... In a few years it is going to be me in space, not in the water with safety divers."

When she was a girl dreaming of space travel, “I couldn’t count the number of people who told me, this dream will never come true. You have unrealistic dreams, and it will never happen. ... Listen to yourself and don't listen to people who don't believe in you.”

In addition to Adenot, the ESA class consists of:

— Pablo Alvarez Fernandez, a Spanish aeronautical engineer who has worked on the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover intended for a joint mission with Russia that was suspended after the invasion of Ukraine;

— Rosemary Coogan, a British astronomer who has researched radiation emissions from black holes;

— Raphael Liegeois, a Belgian biomedical engineer and neuroscientist who has researched degenerative diseases of the nervous system, and also flies hot-air balloons and gliders;

— Marco Alain Sieber, a Swiss emergency physician who achieved sergeant rank as a paratrooper during his service with the Swiss army.

The group was joined by Katherine Bennell-Pegg from Australia, who underwent training under a cooperation agreement between Australia and ESA. She remains an employee of the Australian Space Agency. It's up to the Australian agency to find a way for her to travel in space.

Their yearlong basic training included preparation for the hostile environment encountered in space. They were exposed to multiple times the force of gravity in a centrifuge, and spent hours underwater using scuba gear to float around mockups of space station modules to simulate working in zero gravity.

They learned how to recognize symptoms of hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, by experiencing it themselves in a low-pressure chamber. Survival training included dealing with potential splashdown in the ocean and staying warm in winter while waiting to be recovered in case a landing goes off course. On top of that came academic work on scientific topics and learning about the space station's modules and equipment.

Intensive Russian language is still part of the program, even though ESA has suspended work with Russia except for the space station, where one of the working languages is Russian.

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (AP) — China's space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030.

The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will relieve the current team who have been manning China’s Tiangong space station since last October.

China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to the United States’ concerns over the People’s Liberation Army’s — the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm’s — involvement in the program. This year, the station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) introduced the three astronauts: Commander Ye Guangfu, 43, a veteran astronaut who was part of the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021; and astronauts Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, who will go to space for the first time.

The Shenzhou-18 crew will spend about six months on the space station. They will conduct scientific tests, install space debris protection equipment on the space station, carry out payload experiments, and popularize science education, among other things, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA.

Lin also said China was working toward eventually offering access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists.

“We will accelerate the research and promotion of the participation of foreign astronauts and space tourists in flights with China’s space station,” he said. “We definitely expect to see astronauts of different identities on China’s space station.”

The crew is set for lift-off at 1259 GMT from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in the country’s northwest.

China conducted its first manned space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.

The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities. However, China has broken out in some areas, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.

The U.S. — the only country to have previously put astronauts on the moon — aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Only four countries, the U.S., Russia, China and India, have landed spacecraft on the moon.

___

Mistreanu reported from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.