Since 1958, there have been more than 100 lunar missions, but not all of them were successful. In 1969, the US successfully launched a manned mission on Moon but its first few attempts ended in failure. Over time, the rate of success of lunar missions has gone up significantly

NEW DELHI: Lunar missions have a chequered history. The US did land a manned mission on Moon 50 years back, in 1969, but its first few attempts ended in failure. It’s the same story for the erstwhile USSR. Over time, the rate of success has gone up significantly, but a look at Moon missions down the decades only shows that India’s inability to soft-land Vikram on the lunar south pole is a minor setback, and the lessons learned from this mission might well pave the way for a smooth landing for ISRO's next foray.


Pioneer 0 | US | Aug 1958
First US Moon mission. Intended to orbit the Moon but failed during its launch phase.

Unnamed Luna | USSR | Sept 1958
First Soviet Moon mission. Intended to impact the surface of the Moon but failed during its launch phase.

Luna 1 | USSR | Jan 1959
Designed to impact the Moon, but a miscalculation sent it flying past the Moon. However, it was the first Moon flyby.

Luna 2 | USSR | Sept 1959
First spacecraft to impact the Moon’s surface.

Luna 3 | USSR | Oct 1959
Recorded the first pictures of the Moon.


Luna 9 | USSR |Jan 1966
First lunar soft landing and pictures from the Moon’s surface.

Luna 10 | USSR |Mar 1966
First lunar orbiter.

Zond 5 | USSR | Sept 1968
First spacecraft to orbit the moon and return to Earth. Also the first to carry animals, including two tortoises, fruit fly eggs and plants, to the Moon.

Zond 6 | USSR | Nov 1968
Intended for a Moon flyby carrying animals. It crashed during its return to Earth after a parachute failure.

Apollo 8 | US | Dec 1968
First spacecraft carrying humans to orbit the Moon and return.

Unnamed Luna | USSR | Feb 1969
First attempted Moon rover but it failed to reach orbit and was destroyed.

Apollo 11 | US | July 1969
First landed humans on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 Americans to walk on the lunar surface.


Apollo 13 | US | April 1970
Manned mission that intended to land on the Moon but an exploded oxygen tank forced it to abort the landing and instead return to Earth after looping around the Moon.

LUNA 16 | USSR | Sept 1970
First robotic probe to land on the Moon and the third time a lunar soil was brought to Earth.

Apollo 17 | US | Dec 1972
Remains the most recent manned mission to the Moon.



Hiten | Japan | Jan 1990
Japan’s first lunar probe and the first launched by a country other than USSR or US. Communication was lost with the Hagoromo orbiter carried by Hiten which, however, conducted the first aerobraking manoeuvre by a deep-space probe.


SMART-1 | Europe | Sept 2003
The European Space Agency’s first mission to Moon. Technology tests it was to carry out were a success.

Selene | Japan | Sept 2007
Originally set for launch in 2003 was delayed to 2007 due to problems with launch vehicle. But the mission was successful in its objective of mapping the lunar topography.

Chang’e 1 | China | Oct 2007
China’s first deep space mission and tested technologies to prepare for future Chinese moon landings.

Chandrayaan-1 India | Oct 2008
Chandrayaan-1, India’s first deep space mission, played a crucial role in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon. The orbiter also released an impactor that was deliberately crashed into the Moon.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter | US | June 2009
First US mission to the Moon in over 10 years. The orbiter’s primary goal was to make a 3D map of the Moon’s surface from the lunar polar orbit.


Chang’e 3 |China | Dec 2013
Landed on the Moon and deployed a small rover named Yutu, making it only the third nation to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon.

Chang’e 4 | China | Dec 2018
First mission to land on the far side of the Moon.

Beresheet | Israel | Feb 2019
Israel launched Beresheet, the country’s first lunar mission and the first attempt by a private company to land on the Moon. The mission was lost during an April 2019 landing attempt.

Chandrayaan-2 | India | July 2019

Chandrayaan-2 was the country’s first mission to land on Moon. Control was lost with Vikram lander on September 7, but the orbiter remains operational. Though the lander was lost, the mission objectives were partially fulfilled.

Since its first mission in 1975, ISRO has undertaken 115 missions, including from satellite launches to Moon orbiters. Only 11 missions fell short, of which 8 were the results of launch failures and three failed in orbit.