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 | CNSA | CNSA |
| Status | Deorbited | Mission Complete | Deorbited |
| Mission type | Orbiter | Orbiter | Orbiter |
| Launch date | 1998-01-06 | 2010-10-01 | 2007-10-24 |
| End date | 1999-07-31 | 2012-12-13 | 2009-03-01 |
| Orbit | 100 km circular polar orbit (lowered to 15-30 km for extended mission) | 100 km circular polar orbit, later 15 km periapsis for Sinus Iridum imaging | 200 km circular polar orbit |
| Mass | 158 kgas of [1]One of the smallest and lowest-cost ($63M) NASA lunar orbiters | 2,480 kgas of [1] ↑ Heaviest | 2,350 kgas of [1] |
| Instruments | 5 instrumentsas of [1] | 7 instrumentsas of [1] | 8 instrumentsas of [1] ↑ Most instruments |
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| Outcome | 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. | 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. | China's first lunar mission and the first spacecraft of the Chang'e programme. Operated for 16 months in lunar orbit, producing a complete 3D map of the Moon. Controlled impact on the lunar near-side on 1 March 2009. Demonstrated China's deep-space navigation and communications capability. |
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.