Compare Lunar Orbiters

Pick up to 4 missions to compare side-by-side. State lives in the URL — share the link and the comparison loads exactly as you left it.

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📊 Industry context

Six nations have placed lunar orbiters since 2007 — a 4× increase in 15 years.

Attribute	🇨🇳 Chang'e 2 (嫦娥二号) Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified 2026-06-01Remove ×
Agency	CNSA
Status	Mission Complete
Mission type	Orbiter
Launch date	2010-10-01
End date	2012-12-13
Orbit	100 km circular polar orbit, later 15 km periapsis for Sinus Iridum imaging
Mass	2,480 kgas of 2010-10-01^[1]
Instruments	7 instrumentsas of 2010-10-01^[1]
Key findings	• 7 m/pixel global lunar map — highest-resolution complete lunar map at the time • 1.5 m/pixel images of Sinus Iridum (future Chang'e 3 candidate landing site) • First Chinese spacecraft to reach Earth-Sun L2 point (April 2011) • Flyby of asteroid 4179 Toutatis at 3.2 km distance (December 2012)
Outcome	Chang'e 2 far exceeded its primary mission. After completing its lunar mapping goals, it traveled to the Earth-Sun L2 point (first Chinese L2 mission), then flew past asteroid 4179 Toutatis at 3.2 km — the closest-ever asteroid encounter. Now in a heliocentric orbit, drifting beyond Mars.

Add another (3 slots left)

🇮🇳 Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter+

ISRO

Active

🇺🇸 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)+

🇺🇸 Clementine (DSPSE)+

🇪🇺 SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology)+

About this tool

All 11 lunar orbital missions with primary-source citations from NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO, CNSA, and NASA NSSDCA. Coverage spans Clementine (1994) through LRO (active 2026). Pure URL state — bookmark or share the link and the comparison reproduces exactly.

📋 What changed recently

Jun 2026Updated KPLO/Danuri status and imagery data released by KARI in early 2026.
Jun 2026Updated LRO total years in operation to 17; revised total images to 1.5 million+.
Apr 2026Added Chandrayaan-2 orbiter mapping coverage update from ISRO's 2025–26 operations report.

Attribute

🇨🇳 Chang'e 2 (嫦娥二号)

Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ

Last verified 2026-06-01Remove ×

Agency

CNSA

Status

Mission Complete

Mission type

Orbiter

Launch date

2010-10-01

End date

2012-12-13

Orbit

100 km circular polar orbit, later 15 km periapsis for Sinus Iridum imaging

Mass

2,480 kgas of 2010-10-01^[1]

Instruments

7 instrumentsas of 2010-10-01^[1]

Key findings

• 7 m/pixel global lunar map — highest-resolution complete lunar map at the time
• 1.5 m/pixel images of Sinus Iridum (future Chang'e 3 candidate landing site)
• First Chinese spacecraft to reach Earth-Sun L2 point (April 2011)
• Flyby of asteroid 4179 Toutatis at 3.2 km distance (December 2012)

Outcome

Chang'e 2 far exceeded its primary mission. After completing its lunar mapping goals, it traveled to the Earth-Sun L2 point (first Chinese L2 mission), then flew past asteroid 4179 Toutatis at 3.2 km — the closest-ever asteroid encounter. Now in a heliocentric orbit, drifting beyond Mars.