Missions to the Moon

arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon

lunar exploration mission operated by the China National Space Administration

Chinese lunar orbiter

Chinese lunar lander

type of battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program

Soviet super heavy-lift launch vehicle

third lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon

US unmanned lunar lander

SMART-1 was a European Space Agency satellite that orbited the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 at 23:14 UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART-1" stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1, part of the Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology programme. On 3 September 2006 (05:42 UTC), SMART-1 was deliberately crashed into the Moon's surface, ending its mission.

Chinese Moon orbiter

U.S. space probe which performed a lunar flyby

component of the United States Apollo spacecraft

American lunar lander

American lunar lander

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE; ) was a NASA lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission. It was launched on a Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on September 7, 2013. During its seven-month mission, LADEE orbited the Moon's equator, using its instruments to study the lunar exosphere and dust in the Moon's vicinity. Instruments included a dust detector, neutral mass spectrometer, and ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, as well as a technology demonstration consisting of a laser communications terminal. The mission ended on April 18, 2

NASA lunar lander

Chinese uncrewed lunar expedition

first satellite launched by NASA, unable to reach lunar orbit due to rocket guidance failure

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the Moon. Launched immediately after discovery of lunar water by Chandrayaan-1, the main LCROSS mission objective was to further explore the presence of water in the form of ice in a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar polar region. It was successful in confirming water in the southern lunar crater Cabeus.

NASA mission designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon

failed lunar lander launched in 1966

American lunar lander

American lunar orbiter

Beresheet (, Bərēšīṯ, ; Book of Genesis) was a demonstrator of a small robotic lunar lander and lunar probe operated by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. Its aims included inspiring youth and promoting careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and landing its magnetometer, time capsule, and laser retroreflector on the Moon. The lander's gyroscopes failed on 11 April 2019 causing the main engine to shut off, which resulted in the lander crashing on the Moon. Its final resting position is 32.5956°N, 19.3496°E.

thumb|right|MoonKAM shot The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) was an American lunar science mission in NASA's Discovery Program which used high-quality gravitational field mapping of the Moon to determine its interior structure. The two small spacecraft, GRAIL A (Ebb) and GRAIL B (Flow), were launched on 10 September 2011 aboard a single launch vehicle: the most-powerful configuration of a Delta II, the 7920H-10. GRAIL A separated from the rocket about nine minutes after launch, GRAIL B followed about eight minutes later. They arrived at their orbits around the Moon 25 hours ap

U.S. space probe lost due to a launch failure

U.S. space probe lost due to a launch failure

space exploration vehicle (rover) designed to move across the surface of the Moon

American private spacecraft which landed on the Moon in 2025

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bilateral accords that are part of NASA's Artemis program

IM-1 was a robotic Moon landing mission conducted by Intuitive Machines (IM) in February 2024 using a Nova-C lunar lander. After contact with the lunar surface on February 22 the lander tipped to an unplanned 30 degree angle. All instrument payloads remained functional and the mission was deemed a success. IM-1 was the first commercial mission to successfully soft-land on the Moon. NASA provided funding support for the mission through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The lander, named Odysseus, carried six NASA-developed payloads and several others from commercial and educational

Chinese lunar orbiter

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Space missions

failed Soviet lunar sample-return mission (1969)

model of lunar lander developed by Intuitive Machines

CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that is testing and verifying the calculated orbital stability planned for the now canceled Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12-unit CubeSat that is also testing a navigation system that is measuring its position relative to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) without relying on ground stations. It was launched on 28 June 2022, arrived in lunar orbit on 14 November 2022, and was scheduled to orbit for six months. On 18 May 2023, it completed its primary mis

satellite launched by NASA for long range radio astronomy

failed Soviet lunar sample-return mission

IM-2 was a lunar mission run by Intuitive Machines as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. It was launched on 27 February 2025, at 00:16:30UTC. The Nova-C lunar lander, named Athena, reached the surface of the Moon on 6 March 2025, at 17:28:50UTC. Contact was temporarily lost during the landing process; when it was re-established, it indicated that the spacecraft was not in the correct orientation and one of the two radio antennas was not operating. The sideways orientation prevented the spacecraft from generating sufficient power. By 7 March, Athenas power had been

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), officially Danuri, is South Korea's first lunar mission. The orbiter, its science payload and ground control infrastructure are technology demonstrators. The orbiter will also be tasked with surveying lunar resources such as water ice, uranium, helium-3, silicon, and aluminium, and produce a topographic map to help select future lunar landing sites.

space probe

failed lunar orbiter probe

model of lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace

lunar orbiter probe which failed to be launched

NASA small satellite which was planned to orbit the Moon

LunIR (Lunar InfraRed Imaging, formerly known as SkyFire) is a nanosatellite spacecraft launched to the Moon collecting surface spectroscopy and thermography. It was launched as a secondary payload on the Artemis 1 mission on 16 November 2022.

AsiaSat 3, previously known as HGS-1 and then PAS-22, was a geosynchronous communications satellite, which was salvaged from an unusable geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) by means of the Moon's gravity.

US Moon-orbiting ice-finding satellite

program of robotic spacecraft missions

lunar lander designed for human spaceflight

planned lunar rover

nanosatellite

prototyped design for pressurized rover/small spacecraft

lunar mission by the United Arab Emirates

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commemorative plaques attached to the United States Apollo Lunar Modules

command and communications center of Lunar Gateway

NASA satellite to study characteristics of water on the Moon