This is an accepted version of this page
Alunar lander orMoon lander is aspacecraft designed toland on the surface of the Moon. As of 2024, theApollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 1972 during theUnited States'Apollo Program. Several robotic landers have reached the surface, and some have returnedsamples to Earth.
The design requirements for these landers depend on factors imposed by thepayload, flight rate, propulsive requirements, and configuration constraints.[1] Other important design factors include overall energy requirements, mission duration, the type of mission operations on the lunar surface, andlife support system if crewed. The relatively highgravity (higher than all known asteroids, but lower than all Solar System planets) and lack oflunar atmosphere negates the use ofaerobraking, so a lander must use propulsion to decelerate and achieve asoft landing.
TheLuna program was a series of robotic impactors, flybys, orbiters, and landers flown by theSoviet Union between 1958 and 1976.Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon on February 3, 1966, after 11 unsuccessful attempts. Three Luna Spacecraft returned lunar soil samples to Earth from 1972 to 1976. Two other Luna spacecraft soft-landed theLunokhod robotic lunar rover in 1970 and 1973. Luna achieved a total of seven successful soft-landings out of 27 landing attempts.
TheUnited States'Surveyor program first soft-landedSurveyor 1 on June 2, 1966, this initial success was followed by four additional successful soft-landings, the last occurring on January 10, 1968. The Surveyor program achieved a total of five successful soft landings out of seven landing attempts through January 10, 1968.Surveyor 6 even did a brief hop off the lunar surface.
TheApollo Lunar Module was the lunar lander for the United States'Apollo program. As of 2025, it is the only crewed lunar lander. The Apollo program completed six successful lunar soft-landings from 1969 until 1972; a seventh lunar landing attempt by the Apollo program was aborted whenApollo 13's service module suffered explosive venting from its oxygen tanks.
TheLK lunar module was the lunar lander developed by the Soviet Union as a part of severalSoviet crewed lunar programs. Several LK lunar modules were flown without crew inlow Earth orbit, but the LK lunar module never flew to the Moon, as the development of theN1 RocketLaunch Vehicle required for the lunar flight suffered setbacks (including several launch failures), and after the first humanMoon landings were achieved by theUnited States, the Soviet Union cancelled both the N1 Rocket and the LK Lunar Module programs without any further development.
TheChinese Lunar Exploration Program (also known as the Chang'e project) includes robotic lander, rover, and sample-return components; the program realized an initial successful lunar soft-landing with theChang'e 3 spacecraft on 14 December 2013. As of 2023, the CLEP has achieved three successful soft-landings out of three landing attempts, namelyChang'e 3,Chang'e 4 andChang'e 5. Chang'e 4 made history by making humanity's first ever soft-landing on the far side of the Moon.
Israel'sSpaceIL attempted a robotic lunar landing by itsBeresheet lander on 4 April 2019; the attempt failed. As of 2023, SpaceIL has plans for another soft-landing attempt using a follow-up robotic lander namedBeresheet 2.
India'sChandrayaan Programme conducted an unsuccessful robotic lunar soft-landing attempt on 6 September 2019 as part of itsChandrayaan-2 spacecraft with the lander crashing on the Moon's surface.[2] On 23 August 2023, the program's follow-upChandrayaan-3 lander achieved India's first robotic soft-landing and later conducted a brief hop on 3 September 2023 to test technologies required for Indian lunarsample return mission calledChandrayaan-4.[3]
Japan'sispace (not to be confused with China'si-Space) attempted a lunar soft-landing by itsHakuto-R Mission 1 robotic lander on 25 April 2023. The attempt was unsuccessful and the lander crashed into the lunar surface. The company attempted anotherlanding attempt in 2025, but that also failed.
Russia'sLuna-Glob program, the successor program to the Soviet Union'sLuna program, launched theLuna 25 lunar lander on 10 August 2023; the probe's intended destination was near the lunar south pole, but on 19 August 2023 the lander crashed on the Moon's surface.[4]
Japan'sSmart Lander for Investigating Moon made a successful lunar landing with wrong attitude, bleak signalbandwidth and even after losing one of its engines during descent but within 100 m (330 ft) of its landing spot on 19 January 2024. It carried two small LEV rovers on board deployed separately, just before SLIM's touchdown.[5] Its landing madeJapan the 5th country to soft land on the Moon.[6][7][8]
In January 2024, the first mission of the NASA-fundedCLPS program,Peregrine Mission One, suffered a fuel leak several hours after launch, resulting in losing the ability to maintain attitude control and charge its battery, thereby preventing it from reaching lunar orbit and precluding a landing attempt.[9] The probe subsequently burnt up in Earth's atmosphere.
The second CLPS probeOdysseus landed successfully on 22 February 2024[10] on the Moon, marking the United States' first unmanned lunar soft-landing in over 50 years. This mission is the firstprivate-NASA partnership to land on the Moon and the first landing usingcryogenicpropellants.[11][12] However, the mission experienced some anomalies, including tipping-over on one side on the lunar surface; an off-nominal initial lunar orbit, a non-functioning landingLIDAR instrument, and apparently low communicationbandwidth.[13] Later it was revealed that, though it landed successfully, one of the lander's legs broke upon landing and it tilted up on other side, 18° due to landing on a slope, but the lander survived and payloads are functioning as expected.[14] EagleCam was not ejected prior to landing. It was later ejected on 28 February but partially failed as it returned all types of data, except post IM-1 landing images, the main aim of its mission.[15]
China launchedChang'e 6 from China's Hainan Island on 3 May 2024; this mission seeks to conduct the first lunar sample return from thefar side of the Moon.[16] This is China's second lunar sample return mission, the first was successfully completed byChang'e 5 when it returned 1.731 kg of lunar near side material to the Earth on 16 December 2020.[17] The Chang'e 6 lander successfully landed in the South pole-Aitken basin on the lunar far side at 22:23 UTC on 1 June 2024.[18] After the completion of sample collection and the placement of the sample on the ascender by the probe's robotic drill and robotic arm, the ascender successfully took off from atop the lander portion of the probe at 23:38 UTC on 3 June 2024.[19][20] The ascender docked with the Chang'e 6 service module (the orbiter) in lunar orbit at 06:48 UTC on 6 June 2024 and subsequently completed the transfer of the sample container to the Earth rentry module at 07:24 UTC on the same day.[21] The orbiter then left lunar orbit on 20 June 2024 with the returner, which landed inInner Mongolia on 25 June 2024, completing China's lunar far side sample return mission.
Firefly Aerospace's lunar landerBlue Ghost Mission 1, carrying NASA-sponsored experiments and commercial payloads as a part ofCommercial Lunar Payload Services program toMare Crisium, was launched on 15 January 2025 on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle withHakuto-R Mission 2[22] and successfully landed on 2 March 2025.[23]
The second mission of the Hakuto-R program by ispace,Hakuto-R Mission 2, carrying the RESILIENCE lunar lander and TENACIOUSmicro rover, was launched on 15 January 2025 on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle withBlue Ghost M1 lander.[24] Landing is expected inMare Frigoris around May–June 2025.[25] Hakuto-R Mission 2 apparently crashed during its landing attempt on 5 June 2025.[26]
Intuitive Machines's lunar landerIM-2, carrying NASA-sponsored experiments and commercial rovers (Yaoki, AstroAnt, Micro-Nova and MAPP LV1) and payloads as a part ofCommercial Lunar Payload Services program toMons Mouton, was launched on 27 February 2025 on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle withBrokkr-2 andLunar Trailblazer.[27] IM-2 landed on 6 March 2025. The spacecraft was intact after touchdown but resting on its side, thereby complicating its planned science and technology demonstration mission; this outcome is similar to what occurred with the company's IM-1Odysseus spacecraft in 2024.[28] On March 13, Intuitive Machines shared that, like on the IM-1 mission, theAthena'saltimeter had failed during landing, leaving its onboard computer without an accurate altitude reading. As a result, the spacecraft struck a plateau, tipped over, and skidded across the lunar surface, rolling once or twice before settling inside the crater. The company's CEO compared it to a baseball playersliding into a base. During the slide, the spacecraft rolled once or twice, before coming to rest inside the crater. The impact also kicked upregolith that coated the solar panels in dust, further degrading their performance.[29]
Japan's ispace (not to be confused with China's i-Space) attempted a lunar soft-landing on 5 June 2025. The attempt to land inMare Frigoris (the Sea of Cold), was unsuccessful and the lander,Hakuto-R Mission 2, crashed into the lunar surface.[30][31][32]
The following table details the success rates of past and on-going lunar soft-landing attempts by robotic and crewed lunar-landing programs. Landing programs which have not launched any probes are not included in the table; they are added as their initial robotic and/or crewed landers are launched from Earth.
The termlanding attempt as used here includes any mission that was launched with the intent to land on the Moon, including all missions which failed to reach lunar orbit for any reason. A landing attempt by a spacecraft is classified asfull success if it lands intact on the Moon and is situated in its designed orientation/attitude and fully functional, while apartial success occurs when a spacecraft lands intact on the Moon but its in-situ operations is compromised as a result of the landing process for any reason; afailure occurs when neitherfull success norpartial success has been achieved by the spacecraft.
| Program | Country/Orgs. | Time-span[a] | Type | Landing attempts | Full success | Partial success | Failure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luna |  USSR | 1963–1976 | robotic | 27 | 7 | 20 | Historical program; Luna 25 is part of Luna-Glob | |
| Surveyor |  NASA | 1966–1968 | robotic | 7 | 5 | 2 | Historical program | |
| Apollo | NASA | 1969–1972 | crewed | 7 | 6 | 1 | Historical program | |
| N1/L3 | USSR | N/A | crewed | 0 | 0 | Historical program; 3 uncrewed T2KLK landers were tested in Earth orbit | ||
| Chang'e |  CNSA | 2013–present | robotic | 4 | 4 | Landers/rovers, sample-returns, futureISRU Chang'e 6 landed on the far side of the Moon on 1 June 2024 and successfully returned samples to Earth[18] | ||
| Beresheet |  spaceIL | 2019–present | robotic | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Chandrayaan |  ISRO | 2019–present | robotic | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Hakuto-R |  ispace | 2022–present | robotic | 2 | 0 | 2 | Hakuto-R mission 2 landing attempt failed on 5 June 2025[26] | |
| Luna-Glob |  Roscosmos | 2023–present | robotic | 1 | 0 | 1 | Successor to the Soviet Luna programme. | |
| JAXA | JAXA | 2023–present | robotic | 1 | 0 | 1 | SLIM (landed with off-nominal attitude)[33] | |
| CLPS | NASA | 2024–present | robotic | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Blue Ghost successfully landed inMare Crisium on 2 March 2025 IM-2 landed on 6 March 2025 but tipped over[28] |
Landing on any Solar System body comes with challenges unique to that body. TheMoon has relatively high gravity compared to that of asteroids or comets—and some otherplanetary satellites—and no significant atmosphere. Practically, this means that the only method of descent and landing that can provide sufficient thrust with current technology is based onchemical rockets.[37] In addition, the Moon has a longsolar day. Landers will be in direct sunlight for more than two weeks at a time, and then in complete darkness for another two weeks. This causes significant problems for thermal control.[38]
As of 2019,[update] space probes have landed on all three bodies other than Earth that have solid surfaces and atmospheres thick enough to make aerobraking possible:Mars,Venus, andSaturn's moon Titan. These probes were able to leverage the atmospheres of the bodies on which they landed to slow their descent using parachutes, reducing the amount of fuel they were required to carry. This in turn allowed larger payloads to be landed on these bodies for a given amount of fuel. For example, the 900-kgCuriosity rover was landed on Mars bya craft having a mass (at the time of Mars atmospheric entry) of 2400 kg,[39] of which only 390 kg was fuel. In comparison, the much lighter (292 kg)Surveyor 3 landed on the Moon in 1967 using nearly 700 kg of fuel.[40] The lack of an atmosphere, however, removes the need for a Moon lander to have a heat shield and also allowsaerodynamics to be disregarded when designing the craft.
Although it has much less gravity than Earth, the Moon has sufficiently high gravity that descent must be slowed considerably. This is in contrast to a small asteroid, in which "landing" is more often called "docking" and is a matter of rendezvous and matching velocity more than slowing a rapid descent.
Since rocketry is used for descent and landing, the Moon's gravity necessitates the use of more fuel than is needed for asteroid landing. Indeed, one of the central design constraints for the Apollo program's Moon landing was mass (as more mass requires more fuel to land) required to land and take off from the Moon.[41]
The lunar thermal environment is influenced by the length of the lunar day. Temperatures can swing between approximately −250 to 120 °C (−418.0 to 248.0 °F) (lunar night to lunar day). These extremes occur for fourteen Earth days each, so thermal control systems must be designed to handle long periods of extreme cold or heat.[42] Most spacecraft instruments must be kept within a much stricter range of between −40 and 50 °C (−40 and 122 °F),[43] and human comfort requires a range of 20 to 24 °C (68 to 75 °F). This means that the lander must cool and heat its instruments or crew compartment.
The length of the lunar night makes it difficult to use solar electric power to heat the instruments, and nuclear heaters are often used.[38]
Achieving a soft landing is the overarching goal of any lunar lander, and distinguishes landers from impactors, which were the first type of spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.
All lunar landers require rocket engines for descent. Orbital speed around the Moon can, depending on altitude, exceed 1500 m/s. Spacecraft on impact trajectories can have speeds well in excess of that.[44] In the vacuum the only way to decelerate from that speed is to use a rocket engine.
The stages of landing can include:[45][46]
Lunar landings typically end with the engine shutting down when the lander is several feet above the lunar surface. The idea is that engine exhaust and lunarregolith can cause problems if they were to be kicked back from the surface to the spacecraft, and thus the engines cut off just before touchdown. Engineers must ensure that the vehicle is protected enough to ensure that the fall without thrust does not cause damage.
The first soft lunar landing, performed by the SovietLuna 9 probe, was achieved by first slowing the spacecraft to a suitable speed and altitude, then ejecting a payload containing the scientific experiments. The payload was stopped on the lunar surface using airbags, which provided cushioning as it fell.[47]Luna 13 used a similar method.[48]
Airbag methods are not typical. For example, NASA'sSurveyor 1 probe, launched around the same time as Luna 9, did not use an airbag for final touchdown. Instead, after it arrested its velocity at an altitude of 3.4m it simply fell to the lunar surface. To accommodate the fall the spacecraft was equipped with crushable components that would soften the blow and keep the payload safe.[44] More recently, the ChineseChang'e 3 lander used a similar technique, falling 4m after its engine shut down.[49]
Perhaps the most famous lunar landers, those of theApollo Program, were robust enough to handle the drop once their contact probes detected that landing was imminent. The landing gear was designed to withstand landings with engine cut-out at up to 10 feet (3.0 m) of height, though it was intended for descent engine shutdown to commence when one of the 67-inch (170 cm) probes touched the surface. DuringApollo 11 Neil Armstrong however touched down very gently by firing the engine until touchdown; some later crews shut down the engine before touchdown and felt noticeable bumps on landing, with greater compression of the landing struts.[50][51]