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.
Six nations have placed lunar orbiters since 2007 — a 4× increase in 15 years.
| Attribute | 🇺🇸 Clementine (DSPSE) Deep Space Program Science Experiment Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Remove × | 🇮🇳 Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Chandrayaan-2 Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Remove × | |
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| Agency | USAF/NASA (BMDO) | ISRO | NASA |
| Status | Mission Complete | Active | Deorbited |
| Mission type | Orbiter | Orbiter-Lander | Orbiter |
| Launch date | 1994-01-25 | 2019-07-22 | 1998-01-06 |
| End date | 1994-07-20 | Active | 1999-07-31 |
| Orbit | Polar elliptical orbit 425 × 2,942 km | ~100 km circular polar orbit | 100 km circular polar orbit (lowered to 15-30 km for extended mission) |
| Mass | 424 kgas of [1] | 2,379 kgas of [1]Combined orbiter (2,379 kg) + Vikram lander (1,471 kg) + Pragyan rover (27 kg) at launch; lander crashed Sep 2019 ↑ Heaviest | 158 kgas of [1]One of the smallest and lowest-cost ($63M) NASA lunar orbiters |
| Instruments | 6 cameras + laser ranger + charged particle telescopeas of [1] | 8 instrumentsas of [1]Dual Frequency SAR, IIRS, TMC2, CLASS, OHRC, CHACE-2, DFRS, VELC ↑ Most instruments | 5 instrumentsas of [1] |
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| Outcome | A USAF/NASA joint mission using miniaturized military sensor technology. Clementine produced the first global multispectral map of the Moon and provided the first indirect evidence for polar water-ice via bistatic radar. A computer malfunction during the planned asteroid flyby phase left it in an unusable orbit. | The orbiter component continues functioning perfectly after the Vikram lander crash-landed on 7 September 2019. As of 2026, the orbiter's instruments are providing high-quality science data on the lunar surface composition and polar water-ice deposits. | A low-cost ($63M) NASA Discovery mission that made one of the most important lunar discoveries of the late 20th century: strong evidence for water-ice at both poles. Deliberately impacted the lunar south pole at mission end; no detectable water plume was observed, but this was attributed to unfavorable geometry. |
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.