30/01/2025 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 30 January, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that it had signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space (Italy) to lead a European consortium of aerospace companies in the construction of the lunar descent element (LDE) Argonaut, ESA’s first lunar lander. From the beginning of the next decade, the spacecraft will be launched on regular missions to the Moon and could be used to deliver infrastructure, scientific instruments, rovers,...