Previous observations have suffered from ambiguity between water and its molecular cousin hydroxyl, but the new detection used a method that yielded unambiguous findings.

The initiative, targeting companies that plan to send robots to mine lunar resources, is part of NASA's goal of setting "norms of behavior" in space and allowing private mining on the moon in ways that could help sustain future astronaut missions.

'One of the worst things to happen to Avro was one of the best things to happen to NASA,' historian Erin Gregory said.

On the day JFK promised to put an American on the moon, the U.S. had sent only one astronaut to space, and that was for only 15 minutes.

Canada has an apparent invite to be in on the next NASA moon mission with its expertise in artificial intelligence.

The new year kicked off with the first of two supermoons to illuminate the night’s sky in January.

"This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint."