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List of missions to the Moon

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List of missions to the Moon
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Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959.

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The Luna programme was the first successful lunar programme, its Luna 1 (1959) being the first partially successful lunar mission
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The first image taken of the far side of the Moon, returned by Luna 3 (1959)

The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth and fly past another astronomical body. Soon after that the first Moon landing and the first landing on any extraterrestrial body was performed by Luna 2,[1] which intentionally impacted the Moon on 14 September 1959. The far side of the Moon, which is always facing away from Earth due to tidal locking, was seen for the first time by Luna 3 in (7 October 1959). In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing,[2] while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit, and in 1968 Zond 5 became the first mission to carry terrestrial lifeforms (tortoises) to close proximity of the Moon through a circumlunar approach.[3]

The first crewed missions to the Moon were pursued by the Soviet Union and the United States, becoming the climax of the Space Race. While the Soviet Union shifted to robotic sample return missions, the American Apollo program proceeded successfully, with Apollo 8 becoming the first crewed mission to enter lunar orbit in December 1968. On 20 July 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. At the same time another mission, the robotic sample return mission Luna 15 by the Soviet Union, was in orbit around the Moon, becoming together with Apollo 11 the first ever case of two extraterrestrial missions being conducted at the same time. Until 1972 crewed Apollo missions and until 1976 Soviet uncrewed sample return missions, with the first successful extraterrestrial rovers (Lunokhod programme), continued. After that no dedicated lunar missions were conducted until 1990. Since then the following nations and organisations (in chronological order) have visited the Moon, after the Soviet Union and the United States: Japan, the European Space Agency, China, India, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Pakistan.

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China's Chang'e 4 was the first mission to soft land on the far side of the Moon.
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India's Chandrayaan-3 (2023) became the first lunar mission to achieve a soft landing near the lunar south pole

In 2018 the far side of the Moon was for the first time landed on by the Chang'e 4 mission at the Aitken basin on 3 January 2019 and deployed the Yutu-2 rover. Five years later, China followed with Chang'e 6 sample return mission to the far side whose lander successfully landed in Apollo crater on 1 June 2024 and collected lunar samples.

On August 23, 2023 12:34 UTC, India's Chandrayaan-3 became the first lunar mission to achieve a soft landing near the lunar south pole. The mission consisted of a lander and a rover for carrying out scientific experiments.

The Moon has also been visited by five spacecraft not dedicated to studying it; four of these spacecraft have flown past for the purpose of gravity assistance, and a radio telescope, Explorer 49, was placed into selenocentric orbit in order to use the Moon to block interference from terrestrial radio sources.

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The first successful crewed lunar mission flight plan (Apollo Mission Flight Plan, 1967)
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20th century

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Legend

Cubesat or similar

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21st century

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Legend

⚀ Cubesat or similar

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Statistics

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Launches by decade

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This is a list of 144 missions (including failed ones) to the Moon. It includes Flybys, Impact probes, orbiters, landers, rovers and crewed missions.

Mission milestones by country

This is a list of major milestones achieved by country. Recorded is the first spacecraft from each respective country to accomplish each milestone, regardless of mission type or intended outcome. For example, Beresheet was not intended to be an impactor, but achieved that milestone incidentally.

Legend

  Attempted Milestone achieved
  Attempted Milestone not achieved
First to achieve

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Missions by organization/company

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Landing sites

Quick Facts

As of March 2025, there have been a total twenty eight successful soft landings on the Moon carried out by five countries that include China, India, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Among these, a total of six soft landings were crewed (Apollo) conducted by United States. All two soft landings on the far side of the Moon were carried out by China, while soft landing near the lunar south pole was carried out by India's Chandrayaan-3 and Intuitive Machines' IM-1 Nova-C Odysseus and IM-2 Nova-C Athena lander.

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Future missions

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There are several future lunar missions planned or proposed by various nations and organizations.

Funded and are under development

Robotic

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Crewed

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Proposed but full funding still unclear

Robotic and crewed

The following missions have been proposed but their full funding is unclear:

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Lunar Rovers

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Unrealized concepts

1960s

1970s

  • Canceled Apollo missions – The Apollo program had three more missions lined up until Apollo 20, but the missions beyond Apollo 17, the sixth and final landing mission, were canceled due to budget constraints, change in technical direction and hardware delays. The ambitions shifted towards developing next generation rockets like Space Shuttle, the space station Skylab and in exploration programs such as Grand Tour program.[183]

2000s

2010s

  • Resource Prospector – Concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. It was canceled in April 2018.[185]
  • Indo-Russian joint mission – A joint mission between India and Russia for a robotic lander and rover was under development since 2007. Russia was supposed to develop the lander while India would develop an orbiter, a rover and launch the composite. However, with failure of Fobos-Grunt mission, Russia was unable to provide the lander in time and requested India to accept the delay and risk. The collaboration ended with India repurposing its orbiter towards Mars with its Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013.[186] India would later go on to develop and launch its Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 mission, using an indigenously developed lander.

2020s

  • DearMoon was an unrealized tourist mission financed by Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa. Maezawa and six to eight other civilians would have performed a lunar flyby in a SpaceX Starship. It was cancelled on June 1, 2024[187]
  • VIPER – NASA rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. It was canceled in July 2024.[188]
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See also

Notes

  1. "Even though the source says "IST will conduct various tests"; IST being a research university does not directly control the orbiter, rather any tests or operations on the orbiter are done through the national space agency i.e SUPARCO."[112]
  2. While Orbiting specific missions achieve a flyby milestone by virtue of entering the orbit, this table lists only flyby specific missions.

References

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