Pick up to 4 vehicles to compare side-by-side. State lives in the URL — share the link and the comparison loads exactly as you left it. No JavaScript required.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | ISRO | Intuitive Machines | CNSA |
| Prime contractor | ISRO | Intuitive Machines | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) |
| Status | In development | Landed | Landed |
| Customer | ISRO | NASA-CLPS | CNSA |
| Launch date | 2027–2028 (NET) | 2025-02-27 | 2024-05-03 |
| Landing date | — | 2025-03-06 | 2024-06-01 |
| Landing site | Near Mons Mouton, lunar south pole | Mons Mouton plateau, lunar south pole (~400 m off target) | Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side) |
| Payload | Up to 3 kg lunar sample return (2026-02-06) | 10 payloads delivered (2025-03-06) | 1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earth (2024-06-25) |
| Contract value | — | $62.5M (2025-02-27) | — |
| Outcome | India's first lunar sample-return mission. Five modules launched on two LVM3 vehicles; requires both Earth-orbit and lunar-orbit docking — first-time capabilities for ISRO. Architecture sanctioned by Government of India September 2024. | Soft-landed but tipped onto its side after altimeter failure caused the lander to strike a plateau and skid into a crater rim. Power depleted within ~24 hours; ~250 MB of data transmitted including TRIDENT drill range-of-motion demonstration. | First-ever sample return from the lunar far side and the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Used the Queqiao-2 relay satellite for far-side comms. Samples revealed unexpectedly cohesive grain behavior and excavated material from the Moon's mantle. |
Pure URL state — no JavaScript, no localStorage, no cookies. The comparison renders entirely on the server from the slugs in the query string. Bookmark or share the URL and the comparison reproduces exactly.
Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.