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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 represent some of the earliest endeavours in space missions, with continuous exploration of the Moon beginning in 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 in January 1959, which became the first probe to escape Earth's gravity and perform a flyby of another astronomical body, passing near the Moon. Soon after, the first Moon landing—and the first landing on any extraterrestrial body—was carried out by Luna 2,[1] which intentionally impacted the Moon on 14 September 1959. The far side of the Moon, permanently hidden from Earth due to tidal locking, was imaged for the first time by Luna 3 on 7 October 1959, revealing terrain never before seen.

Significant advances continued throughout the 1960s. In 1966, Luna 9 achieved the first controlled soft landing on the lunar surface,[2] followed later that year by Luna 10, the first spacecraft to enter orbit around the Moon. In 1968, the Zond 5 mission became the first to carry terrestrial lifeforms—specifically tortoises—on a circumlunar approach that brought them close to the Moon and returned them safely to Earth, demonstrating biological viability in deep space.[3]

The first crewed missions to the Moon were undertaken by the Soviet Union and the United States, forming the pinnacle of the Space Race. While the Soviet programme pivoted toward robotic sample return missions, the American Apollo program advanced through a sequence of increasingly complex missions. In December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first crewed spacecraft to orbit the Moon. On 20 July 1969, Apollo 11 accomplished the first crewed landing on the lunar surface, during which Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon. Concurrently, the Soviet Luna 15 robotic mission was also orbiting the Moon, marking the first known instance of simultaneous extraterrestrial operations by different nations.

Between 1969 and 1972, the United States carried out six successful Apollo landings, while the Soviet Union continued deploying uncrewed probes, including the Lunokhod programme—the first extraterrestrial rovers—and sample return missions through 1976. Following this period, there was a gap in dedicated lunar missions lasting until 1990. Since then, renewed interest in lunar exploration has seen additional missions conducted by a broader range of spacefaring entities. In chronological order following the Soviet Union and the United States, the Moon has been visited by Japan, the European Space Agency, China, India, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, and Pakistan.

In 2018, the far side of the Moon was targeted for the first time by a landing mission. On 3 January 2019, China’s Chang'e 4 mission successfully landed in the Aitken basin, deploying the Yutu-2 rover, which commenced scientific operations on the unexplored lunar hemisphere. Five years later, China launched the Chang'e 6 sample return mission to the far side. Its lander touched down in Apollo crater on 1 June 2024 and collected the first lunar samples retrieved from the Moon’s far hemisphere.

The first commercial mission to the Moon was the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M), developed by LuxSpace, a subsidiary of the German aerospace company OHB AG, Launched on 23 October 2014 with the mission flying as a secondary payload aboard CNSA’s Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft.[4][5]

The Moon has also been visited by a small number of spacecraft not dedicated to lunar study. Of these, four executed flybys using the Moon for gravity assist manoeuvres to alter their interplanetary trajectories. In addition, Explorer 49, a radio astronomy satellite launched by the United States in 1973, was placed into selenocentric orbit where the Moon itself served as a shield from terrestrial radio interference, enabling observations of deep-space radio signals.

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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.[184]

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.[186]
  • 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.[187] 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[188]
  • VIPER – NASA rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. It was canceled in July 2024.[189]
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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."[114]
  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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