Race to the Moon
173 rows: every spacecraft that left Earth for the Moon, every launch attempt that did not, and the missions on today’s manifests. Launch dates are UTC; where a local date differs it is shown beside it. Claims no source could confirm carry an “Unconfirmed” label.
Data reviewed against sources as of · All dates UTC unless a local time is shown
Showing 12 of 173. Download the full catalogue (CSV), free to reuse with attribution to SpaceNexus (CC BY 4.0; how to cite). Missions with their own page are linked by name. Landing attempts only: every Moon landing attempt.
| Launch (UTC) | Mission | Result | Key events, firsts, sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch: | Chang’e 1CN (China)CNSA · Orbiter | Success |
Firsts: China’s first lunar mission Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) · Wikipedia (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 2CN (China)CNSA · Orbiter | Success |
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · NASA History Division (A. Siddiqi) (Sep 2018) · China National Space Administration (22 Nov 2013) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 3 / YutuCN (China)CNSA · Lander + rover | Success |
Firsts: First soft landing on the Moon since Luna 24 (1976); China became the third nation to soft-land The Yutu rover lost mobility during its second lunar day (2014) and operated until 2016. 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) · SpaceNews (14 Jan 2025) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 5-T1 (+ Manfred Memorial Moon Mission)CN (China)CNSA · Uncrewed circumlunar returnPartners: LuxSpace (Luxembourg): 4M payload | Success |
LuxSpace billed its 4M payload as the first privately funded mission to the Moon. It was not the first private hardware past the Moon: AsiaSat 3/HGS-1 flew by in 1998. Sources: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog (Internet Archive copy) (read 23 Sep 2026) |
| Launch: | Queqiao (+ Longjiang-1/2)CN (China)CNSA · Relay | Success |
Firsts: First communications relay at the Earth–Moon L2 point Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · Wikipedia (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 4 / Yutu-2CN (China)CNSA · Lander + rover | Success |
Firsts: First landing on the lunar far side The lander continues science operations (Planetary Society). No official Yutu-2 status since 2024; NASA LRO images analysed by Phil Stooke suggest it has not moved since March 2024. Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · The Planetary Society (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) · SpaceNews (14 Jan 2025) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 5CN (China)CNSA · Sample return | Success |
Firsts: First lunar sample return since 1976; First robotic rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit Sources: NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · China National Space Administration (19 Dec 2020) · Xinhua (22 Feb 2021) · China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) (6 Dec 2020) |
| Launch: | Queqiao-2 (+ Tiandu-1/2)CN (China)CNSA · Relay | Operating |
Tested links with Chang’e 4 on the far side (6 Apr 2024) and with Chang’e 6 while it was still on the ground (8–9 Apr); relayed for Chang’e 6 in June 2024; will relay for Chang’e 7 and 8 when they fly. Design life 8 years (CNSA’s Chang’e-6 deputy chief designer, as quoted). Sources: China National Space Administration (25 Mar 2024) · China National Space Administration (12 Apr 2024) · Huaxi Metropolis Daily (quoting CNSA’s Wang Qiong) (21 Mar 2024) · NASA NSSDCA (updated 10 Jul 2025) · Wikipedia (read 23 Sep 2026, secondary) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 6 (+ ICUBE-Q)CN (China)CNSA · Sample returnPartners: France (DORN); ESA/Sweden (NILS); Italy (INRRI); Pakistan (ICUBE-Q cubesat) | Success |
Firsts: First samples ever returned from the lunar far side 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) |
| Launch: – | Chang’e 7CN (China)China (lunar exploration programme; statements issued by CMSA) · Lander + rover | Postponed |
Orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping probe for permanently shadowed craters; six international instruments. CMSA, 23 Aug 2026: "In line with the principle of being prudent, reliable and failure-proof, and after a comprehensive assessment, the Chang’e-7 mission does not meet launch conditions and cannot be carried out in this year’s planned window." No cause and no new date were given. Thailand’s NARIT (a payload partner) said the main driver "appeared to be" weather, specifically higher-altitude winds, and expects a 2027 window; a partner statement, not China’s. Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: China Manned Space Agency (CMSE site) (23 Aug 2026) · Xinhua (23 Aug 2026) · China Manned Space Agency (CMSE site) (19 Aug 2026) · gov.cn (Xinhua) (7 Sep 2024) · CNN (23 Aug 2026) · China in Space (31 Aug 2026) |
| Launch: | Chang’e 8CN (China)China (lunar exploration programme) · Lander + roverPartners: Pakistan (Jinnah-1 rover, 30 kg); other international payloads (200 kg capacity) | Scheduled | Lander, rover and a multi-purpose robot for the Leibnitz-Beta Plateau near the south pole (CNSA); tests 3-D printing of bricks from regolith. Chang’e 7 and 8 are to be parts of the ILRS "basic model". SpaceNews reported on 10 Sep 2026 that CMSA, now in charge of lunar missions, "appears to be reconfiguring" the robotic landing programme; there is no official statement. Unconfirmed (reported but not confirmed by a primary source):
Sources: China National Space Administration (Xinhua) (24 Apr 2025) · gov.cn (Xinhua) (7 Sep 2024) · China National Space Administration (Xinhua) (24 Apr 2025) · Dawn (13 Aug 2026) · SpaceNews (Apr 2025) · SpaceNews (10 Sep 2026) |
| Launch: Before 2030 (2030年前) | China’s first crewed landingCN (China)China Manned Space Agency · Crewed landing · crewed | Scheduled | Two Long March 10 launches; Mengzhou and the two-seat Lanyue lander meet in lunar orbit. Crew of three, two landing (Wang Xiang, 7th Manned Space Symposium, 31 Oct 2026, reported by Global Times; Mengzhou’s three seats to lunar orbit were in CMSA’s 2024 naming announcement). CMSA, 23 May 2026: go all out to achieve, "on schedule" (如期), the first Chinese landing before 2030. No launch sequence has been officially dated. Sources: China Manned Space Agency (CMSE site) (23 May 2026) · China Manned Space Agency (CMSE site) (27 Feb 2026) · China Manned Space Agency (CMSE site) (14 Jun 2024) · SpaceNews (Jul 2023) · Global Times (Fan Wei), via Sina (31 Oct 2026) · CCTV.com (CMSA naming announcement) (24 Feb 2024) |
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: catalogue of lunar missions since 1958 (Version 2026-11-03) [Data set]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22985974. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
@misc{spacenexus_moon_catalogue_20261103,
author = {{SpaceNexus}},
title = {Race to the Moon: catalogue of lunar missions since 1958},
year = {2026},
version = {2026-11-03},
howpublished = {\url{https://spacenexus.us/moon/missions}},
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).
Week in Space Data, every Friday.