Our daily spacewalk around the world

🇯🇵 Japan became the fifth country to successfully land on the Moon. The Japanese Space Agency’s “Moon Sniper” robotic explorer touched down on Friday, though the mission may end prematurely since the probe arrived on the lunar surface like your phone on a night out (with only a few hours of battery life and no ability to generate electricity). The probe has successfully deployed two lunar rovers, but space officials have yet to confirm whether it successfully achieved a precision landing (within 100 meters of the target) – an unprecedented achievement in space exploration. For context, previous lunar landers landed within a few miles of their intended targets.

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇸🇦 The US is campaigning for a new Middle East peace plan to take effect following the Israel-Hamas war. Biden administration officials say the plan would involve Israel normalizing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, in exchange for agreeing to an irreversible pathway to a Palestinian state and allowing the Palestinian Authority to have a role in post-Hamas Gaza. Separately, diplomats from the US, Egypt, and Qatar are reportedly pushing Israel and Hamas to agree to a peace process that would start with a release of hostages and, eventually, lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

🌍 NATO is kicking off its largest war-games exercises since the Cold War. Around 90,000 personnel will participate in months of drills that officials say are aimed at a) showing that the 31-nation military alliance can defend its entire territory and b) deterring Russia from attacking any NATO member nation. Sweden, which is expected to join NATO this year, will also take part in the military exercises.