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Six nations have placed lunar orbiters since 2007 — a 4× increase in 15 years.
| Attribute | 🇯🇵 SELENE (Kaguya) SELenological and ENgineering Explorer Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Remove × | 🇮🇳 Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Chandrayaan-2 Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Remove × | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | JAXA | NASA | ISRO |
| Status | Mission Complete | Deorbited | Active |
| Mission type | Orbiter | Orbiter | Orbiter-Lander |
| Launch date | 2007-09-14 | 1998-01-06 | 2019-07-22 |
| End date | 2009-06-10 | 1999-07-31 | Active |
| Orbit | 100 km circular polar orbit (primary phase) | 100 km circular polar orbit (lowered to 15-30 km for extended mission) | ~100 km circular polar orbit |
| Mass | 2,855 kgas of [1]Main orbiter (2,230 kg) + Rstar relay sub-satellite (53 kg) + VRAD sub-satellite (52 kg) ↑ Heaviest | 158 kgas of [1]One of the smallest and lowest-cost ($63M) NASA lunar orbiters | 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 |
| Instruments | 15 instrumentsas of [1] ↑ Most instruments | 5 instrumentsas of [1] | 8 instrumentsas of [1]Dual Frequency SAR, IIRS, TMC2, CLASS, OHRC, CHACE-2, DFRS, VELC |
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| Outcome | JAXA's flagship lunar orbiter, second only to LRO in scientific output. SELENE performed a controlled impact on the lunar near-side in June 2009, with the impact flash confirmed by ground telescopes. Its terrain camera produced the most complete global DEM of the Moon prior to LOLA/LRO. | 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. | 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. |
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.