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 | |
|---|---|
| Agency | NASA |
| Status | Mission Complete |
| Mission type | Impactor |
| Launch date | 2009-06-18 |
| End date | 2009-10-09 |
| Orbit | Elliptical shepherding orbit; impacted Cabeus crater |
| Mass | 891 kgas of [1]LCROSS + Centaur upper stage (2,366 kg total impact); Centaur impacted first |
| Instruments | 9 instrumentsas of [1] |
| Key findings |
|
| Outcome | NASA's low-cost ($79M) impactor mission co-launched with LRO. The Centaur upper stage struck Cabeus crater on October 9, 2009, ejecting a plume of material that LCROSS analyzed as it flew through it before also impacting. This definitively confirmed water-ice in permanently shadowed craters — one of the most important planetary science results of the 2000s. |
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.