List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies explained

This is a list of all spacecraft landings on other planets and bodies in the Solar System, including soft landings and both intended and unintended hard impacts. The list includes orbiters that were intentionally crashed, but not orbiters which later crashed in an unplanned manner due to orbital decay.

Colour key:

 - Unsuccessful soft landing, intentional hard landing, or mission still in progress.
 - Successful soft landing with intelligible data return. The tannish hue indicates extraterrestrial soil.
 - Successful soft landing, intelligible data return, and sample return to Earth. The greenish hue indicates terrestrial return.
 - Successful soft landing, data/voice/video communication, sample return to Earth, and safe astronaut landing and return to Earth.

Planets

Venus

MissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactCoordinatesNotes
USSR 1 March 1966 Probably around -20° to 20° N, 60° to 80° E First impact on the surface of another planet. Contact lost before atmospheric entry.
USSR 23 October 1967 Estimated near .[1] Crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact.
USSR 16 May 1969 Atmospheric probe; crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact.
USSR 17 May 1969 Atmospheric probe; crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact.
USSR 15 December 1970 First successful soft landing on another planet; transmitted from surface for 23 minutes.
The spacecraft definitively confirmed that humans cannot survive on the surface of Venus, and excluded the possibility of any liquid water on Venus.
USSR 22 July 1972 Within 150 km radius of Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 50 minutes.
USSR 22 October 1975 Within a 150 km radius of Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 53 minutes. First pictures from surface.
USSR 25 October 1975 Within a 150 km radius of Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 65 minutes.
Pioneer Venus Multiprobe USA9 December 1978Day Probe Survived impact and continued to transmit from the surface for 67 minutes.[2]
Night Probe 28.7°S 56.7°ESurvived impact and continued to transmit from the surface for 2 seconds.
North Probe 59.3°N 4.8°ESignal lost upon impact.
Large probe 4.4°N 304.0°ESignal lost upon impact.
USSR 21 December 1978 Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 110 minutes.
USSR 25 December 1978 Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 95 minutes.
USSR 1 March 1982 Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 127 minutes. First photographs in color of its surface, and it records atmospheric wind noises, the first sounds heard from another planet.[3]
USSR 5 March 1982 Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 57 minutes.
USSR 11 June 1985 Soft landing; some instruments failed to return data.
USSR 15 June 1985 Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 57 minutes.

Mars

MissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactCoordinatesNotes
USSR 27 November 1971 First man-made object on Mars. No contact after crash landing.
USSR 2 December 1971 First soft landing on Mars. Transmission began about 90 seconds after landing.[4] Transmitted a partial image for 14.5 seconds before the signal was lost. [5]
USSR 12 March 1974 Contact lost at landing.
USA 20 July 1976 Successful soft landing. First to send images in color, as well as to perform in situ biological experiments with the Martian soil.[6]
USA 3 September 1976 48.269°N 134.01°W Successful soft landing.
Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover USA 4 July 1997 First airbag landing on Mars and first Mars rover.
USA 3 December 1999 Contact lost prior to landing.
25 December 2003 11.5265°N 90.4295°W Successful soft landing. No contact due to solar "petals" not deploying fully, blocking antenna.[7]
USA 3 January 2004 Mars rover. Contact lost 22 March 2010.
USA 25 January 2004 Mars rover. Contact lost 10 June 2018.
Phoenix USA 25 May 2008Successful soft landing in the north polar region.
USA 6 August 2012 -4.5895°N 137.4417°W Mars rover. Landed in Gale Crater.
19 October 2016 Contact lost after entry and parachute deployment, but before planned landing. Hard impact on the surface.[8]
InSight USA26 November 2018Successful soft landing.
Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter USA18 February 202118.4447°N 77.4508°WMars rover and helicopter. Successful soft landing in Jezero Crater. Helicopter deployed from rover on 3 April 2021.
Tianwen-1 lander and Zhurong rover China14 May 202125.1°N 109.9°WSuccessful soft landing in Utopia Planitia. Zhurong rover deployed on 22 May 2021.

Jupiter

Jupiter is a gas giant with a very large atmospheric pressure and internal temperature and thus there is no known hard surface on which to "land". All missions listed here are impacts on Jupiter.

MissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactNotes
Atmospheric probe of Jupiter.
Galileo Main craft was intentionally directed at Jupiter and disintegrated in Jovian atmosphere.

Saturn

Saturn is a gas giant with a very large atmospheric pressure and internal temperature and thus there is no known hard surface on which to "land". All missions listed here are impacts on Saturn.

Planetary moons

Earth's Moon

MissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactCoordinatesNotes
USSR 13 September 1959 Intentional hard impact.
USA 26 April 1962 Unintentional hard impact; hit lunar far side due to failure of navigation system.
USA 2 February 1964 Intentional hard impact.
USA 31 July 1964 Intentional hard impact.
USA 20 February 1965 Intentional hard impact.
USA 24 March 1965 Intentional hard impact.
USSR 12 May 1965 Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon.
USSR 7 October 1965 Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon.
USSR 6 December 1965 Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon.
USSR 3 February 1966 First successful soft landing; first pictures from the surface.
USA 2 June 1966 Soft landing.
USA 23 September 1966 Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon.
USA 29 October 1966 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
USSR 24 December 1966 Soft landing.
USA 20 April 1967 Soft landing. First lander visited by a later crewed mission (Apollo 12) that even brought its components.
USA 17 July 1967 Contact lost on descent.
USA 11 September 1967 Soft landing.
USA 10 November 1967 Soft landing.
USA 10 January 1968 Soft landing.
USA 20 July 1969 0.6741°N 23.473°W First crewed landing on an extraterrestrial body.
USSR 21 July 1969 Possible attempted sample return; crashed into Moon.Not a crewed mission.
USA 18 November 1969 Crewed mission.
USA 14 April 1970 S-IVB stage crashed for seismic research (rocket stages from some other Apollo missions that successfully landed were also crashed in this manner[9])
USSR 20 September 1970 First successful robotic sample return.
USSR 17 November 1970 Robotic lunar rover.
USA 5 February 1971 Crewed mission.
USA 30 July 1971 26.1322°N 3.6339°W Crewed mission; lunar rover.
USSR 11 September 1971 Failed attempt at sample return; probable crash-landing.
USSR 21 February 1972 Robotic sample return.
USA 21 April 1972 -8.973°N 15.5002°W Crewed mission; lunar rover.
USA 7 December 1972 Crewed mission; lunar rover. Last crewed landing on extraterrestrial bodies to date.
USSR 8 January 1973 Robotic lunar rover.
USSR 6 November 1974 Failed attempt at sample return; damaged on landing. Operated for 3 days on the surface.
USSR 18 August 1976 Robotic sample return.
Japan 10 April 1993 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
USA 31 July 1999 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed into polar crater at end of mission to test for liberation of water vapour (not detected).
3 September 2006 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
14 November 2008 Impactor. Water found.
SELENE Rstar (Okina) Japan12 February 2009Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Chang'e 1 China1 March 2009 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Kaguya Japan10 June 2009 Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
LCROSS (Centaur) United States9 October 2009-84.675°N -48.725°W
-84.729°N -49.36°W
Impactors. Water confirmed.
LCROSS (Shepherding Spacecraft)
Chang'e 3 China14 December 2013 First soft landing on the Moon since 1976, lunar rover.
Chang'e 4 China3 January 2019 First soft landing on the far side of the Moon, lunar rover.
Beresheet Israel11 April 2019 Israeli lunar lander crash landed on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 India8 September 2019 First attempt to land near the Moon's south pole; lost contact at 2.1 km and crashed.
Chang'e 5 China1 December 202043.0576°N -51.9161°W[10] [11] First lunar sample return mission by China. Sample successfully returned to Earth on 16 December 2020.
7 December 2020-30°N 0°W[12] Intentional impact of ascent stage after delivering sample to orbiter.
Hakuto-R Mission 1 Japan25 April 202347.581°N 44.094°WUnsuccessful attempt; contact was lost before landing alongside the lander being crash-landed.
Luna 2519 August 2023 Unsuccessful attempt; crashed on lunar surface after failure during lunar orbit insertion.
Chandrayaan-3 India23 August 2023 -69.373°N 32.319°W Soft landing. First Indian soft landing. First soft landing in the south pole region of the Moon. Lunar rover.
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) Japan19 January 2024 -13.316°N 25.251°W[13] Soft landing. First Japanese soft landing. Two lunar rovers.
IM-1 Odysseus United States22 February 2024 -80.13°N 1.44°W[14] First successful soft landing by a commercial lander (Nova-C lander made by Intuitive Machines).
Chang'e 6 China1 June 2024-41.6385°N -153.9852°W[15] First far side lunar sample return mission by China. Sample will be returned to Earth in June 2024.
6 June 2024Intentional impact of ascent stage will be conducted after delivering sample to orbiter.

Moons of Mars

Phobos

Moons of Saturn

Titan

Other bodies

Asteroids

BodyMissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactCoordinatesNotes
USA 12 February 2001 Designed as an orbiter, but an improvised landing was carried out on completion of the main mission. Transmission from the surface continued for about 16 days.
Hayabusa 19 November 2005 Accidentally stayed for 30 min.
25 November 2005Stayed for 1 sec. Sample return (very small amount of dust successfully returned to Earth).
Hayabusa2 Japan 21 September 2018 MINERVA-II Rover-1A and Rover-1B, deployed successfully and returned data from the surface.
France / Germany3 October 2018 MASCOT rover, deployed successfully and returned data from the surface.
Japan21 February 2019 Hayabusa2 first touchdown. Successfully collected sample from the surface. Sample returned to Earth on 5 December 2020.
5 April 2019 Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI), fired at surface to create a crater from which to sample sub-surface material
April 2019Deployable Camera 3, photographed the impact created by the Small carry-on Impactor. Presumed to have fallen on the asteroid.
11 July 2019 Hayabusa2 second touchdown. Successfully collected sub-surface material sample from the crater created by the SCI. Sample returned to Earth on 5 December 2020.
October 2019 MINERVA-II Rover-2, failed before deployment, so it was released in orbit around the asteroid to perform gravitational measurements before it impacted a few days later.
BennuOSIRIS-REx USA20 October 202056°N 43°EOSIRIS-REx touchdown, collected sample from surface. Sample returned to Earth on 24 September 2023
Dimorphos USA 26 September 2022 Intentional hard impact. First Solar System body intentionally deviated (slightly) of its orbit.[16]

Comets

BodyMissionCountry/AgencyDate of landing/impactCoordinatesNotes
Deep Impact USA 4 July 2005 Impactor.
Rosetta ESA12 November 2014 Philae lander. Successful soft landing, but anchors misfired and Philae bounced multiple times before coming to rest. Philae transmitted briefly but could not maintain power due to its awkward landing.
29 September 2016 The Rosetta orbiter was intentionally crashed into the comet.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: 98–101 . Russian planetary exploration . Brian Harvey . Springer . 2007 . 978-0-387-46343-8.
  2. Web site: Pioneer Venus Probes .
  3. Web site: NSSDC Master Catalog - Venera 13 Descent Craft . NASA National Space Science Data Center . 13 April 2013.
  4. Web site: Mars 2, 3 (Mars M71 #1, #2, #3) .
  5. Web site: Mars 3 . 2010-05-28.
  6. Web site: Williams . David R. Dr. . Viking Mission to Mars . December 18, 2006 . . February 2, 2014.
  7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886 "Lost Beagle2 probe found 'intact' on Mars"
  8. Web site: Schiaparelli crash site in colour . European Space Agency . 15 January 2017 . 3 November 2016.
  9. https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/28apr_skyisfalling.htm "The Sky is Falling"
  10. Web site: Williams . David R. . 7 December 2018 . Future Chinese Lunar Missions . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190104200441/https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/cnsa_moon_future.html . 2019-01-04 . NASA.
  11. Web site: Andrew . Jones . 7 June 2017 . China confirms landing site for Chang'e-5 Moon sample return . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20190328154816/https://gbtimes.com/china-confirms-landing-site-change-5-moon-sample-return . 28 March 2019 . 17 December 2017 . GB Times.
  12. Web site: Chang'e-5 spacecraft smashes into moon after completing mission . 8 December 2020 . SpaceNews . 2020-12-11.
  13. Web site: Archived copy . 25 August 2023 . 8 September 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230908075454/https://global.jaxa.jp/countdown/slim/SLIM-mediakit-EN_2308.pdf . live .
  14. Web site: Robinson . Mark . Intuitive Machines IM-1 On The Moon! . February 26, 2024 . 2024-02-26 . www.lroc.asu.edu.
  15. Web site: First Look: Chang'e 6. 2024-06-14. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera . en . 2024-06-15 .
  16. Web site: 27 September 2022 . NASA's DART Mission Hits Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test . NASA.