Race to the Moon
40 missions in our catalogue tried to land on the Moon and reached the surface: 24 landed upright, 3 landed and tipped over, 1 landed damaged and 12 crashed. 6 of them carried crews (Apollo). 4 more landers left Earth but never reached the surface; they are listed below.
A landing attempt here means a spacecraft built to land that reached the surface. Impactors (built to hit the Moon) and launch failures are in the full mission list. The result is the landing itself; a mission can land softly and still fail later, and the mission outcome is shown beside it.
Data reviewed against sources as of · All dates UTC unless a local time is shown
Showing 40 of 40. Download every landing attempt (CSV), CC BY 4.0.
| Date (UTC) | Mission | Landing result | Mission outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launched | Luna 5USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Lander Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Launched | Luna 7USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Lander Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Launched | Luna 8USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Lander Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Luna 9USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Surveyor 1US (United States) NASA / JPL · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Launched | Surveyor 2US (United States) NASA / JPL · Lander Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Luna 13USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Surveyor 3US (United States) NASA / JPL · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Launched | Surveyor 4US (United States) NASA / JPL · Lander Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Surveyor 5US (United States) NASA / JPL · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Surveyor 6US (United States) NASA / JPL · LanderLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Surveyor 7US (United States) NASA / JPL · LanderLanded near Tycho Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Launched | Luna 15USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample return Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Apollo 11US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Sea of Tranquility (Armstrong, Aldrin; Collins in orbit) Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Apollo 12US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Ocean of Storms, beside Surveyor 3 Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Luna 16USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample returnLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Luna 17 / Lunokhod 1USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Lander + roverLanded; Lunokhod 1 deployed Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Apollo 14US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Fra Mauro Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Apollo 15US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Hadley–Apennine Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Launched | Luna 18USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample return Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Crashed | Failure |
| Luna 20USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample returnLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Apollo 16US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Descartes Highlands Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Apollo 17US (United States) NASA · Crewed landing · crewedLanded, Taurus–Littrow Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Luna 21 / Lunokhod 2USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Lander + roverLanded; Lunokhod 2 deployed Sources: NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Luna 23USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample returnLanded damaged; the drill could not operate Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Landed damaged | Partial | |
| Luna 24USSR (Soviet Union) USSR · Sample returnLanded Sources: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog (Internet Archive copy) (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA NSSDCA (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Chang’e 3 / YutuCN (China) CNSA · Lander + roverLanded, Mare Imbrium Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) · Wikipedia (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Chang’e 4 / Yutu-2CN (China) CNSA · Lander + roverLanded in Von Kármán crater, far side Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · The Planetary Society (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) · SpaceNews (14 Jan 2025) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Launched | BeresheetIL (Israel) SpaceIL + IAI (privately funded) · Lander Sources: UPI (11 Apr 2019) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) | Crashed | Failure |
| Launched | Chandrayaan-2 (orbiter + Vikram + Pragyan)IN (India) ISRO · Lander + rover Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog (Internet Archive copy) (read 23 Sep 2026) · NASASpaceflight (Sep 2019) | Crashed | Partial |
| Chang’e 5CN (China) CNSA · Sample returnLanded near Mons Rümker, Oceanus Procellarum Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · China National Space Administration (19 Dec 2020) · Xinhua (22 Feb 2021) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Hakuto-R Mission 1 (+ Rashid, SORA-Q)JP (Japan) ispace (private) · Lander + roverLanding attempt failed (26 Apr JST) Sources: ispace (26 May 2023) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) | Crashed | Failure | |
| Launched | Luna 25RU (Russia) Roscosmos · Lander Sources: Spaceflight Now (20 Aug 2023) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) | Crashed | Failure |
| Chandrayaan-3 (Vikram + Pragyan)IN (India) ISRO · Lander + roverLanded at about 69.37°S in the south polar region Sources: ISRO (read 24 Sep 2026) · IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (USGS) (19 Mar 2024) · ISRO (read 23 Sep 2026) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| SLIM (+ LEV-1, LEV-2/SORA-Q)JP (Japan) JAXA · LanderLanded; came to rest on its nose (20 Jan 00:20 JST) | Soft landing, tipped over | Success | |
| IM-1 OdysseusUS (United States) Intuitive Machines (NASA CLPS) · LanderLanded near Malapert A in the south polar region and came to rest tilted Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: NASA (Feb 2024) · NASA APOD (24 Feb 2024) · NASA Science (updated 23 Oct 2026) | Soft landing, tipped over | Partial | |
| Chang’e 6 (+ ICUBE-Q)CN (China) CNSA · Sample returnLanded in the Apollo basin, South Pole–Aitken basin, far side (2 Jun BJT) Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: China National Space Administration (Xinhua) (28 Jun 2024) · The Planetary Society (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| Blue Ghost Mission 1US (United States) Firefly Aerospace (NASA CLPS) · LanderLanded near Mons Latreille, Mare Crisium (03:34 EST) Sources: NASA (2 Mar 2025) · NASA (18 Mar 2025) · Firefly Aerospace (read 24 Sep 2026) | Soft landing, upright | Success | |
| IM-2 Athena (+ PRIME-1, Grace, MAPP, Yaoki)US (United States) Intuitive Machines (NASA CLPS) · LanderTouched down more than 400 m from its target near Mons Mouton and lay on its side Sources: NASA (release 25-025) (7 Mar 2025) · LROC team (Arizona State University, NASA LRO) (Mar 2025) · NASA (updated 29 Apr 2025) | Soft landing, tipped over | Partial | |
| Hakuto-R Mission 2 "Resilience" (+ Tenacious)JP (Japan) ispace · Lander + roverHard landing in Mare Frigoris (6 Jun JST) Sources: ispace (24 Jun 2025) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) | Crashed | Failure |
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018)
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018)
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025)
Sources: NASA (19 Jan 2024) · NASA Science (updated 23 Oct 2026)
Licence: this data is published under CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). Use it, share it and adapt it, commercially too, with credit to SpaceNexus and a link. It is our own compilation from the public sources linked on every row; quoted statements and those sources remain their owners’, and the illustrations are not part of the dataset.
Suggested citation
SpaceNexus. (2026). Race to the Moon: every Moon landing attempt (Version 2026-11-03) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22985974. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
@misc{spacenexus_moon_landings_20261103,
author = {{SpaceNexus}},
title = {Race to the Moon: every Moon landing attempt},
year = {2026},
version = {2026-11-03},
howpublished = {\url{https://spacenexus.us/moon/landings}},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.22985974},
note = {Licensed CC BY 4.0},
}Version 2026-11-03: the date the data was last reviewed against its sources. Persistent identifier: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22985974. Download: CSV (UTF-8).
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