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 | SpaceX | JAXA |
| Prime contractor | ISRO | SpaceX | Mitsubishi Electric |
| Status | In development | In development | Landed |
| Customer | ISRO | NASA-HLS | JAXA |
| Launch date | 2027–2028 (NET) | 2027 (NET — Artemis III) | 2023-09-06 |
| Landing date | — | — | 2024-01-19 |
| Landing site | Near Mons Mouton, lunar south pole | Lunar south pole (NASA-curated candidate region near 84-90°S) | Near Shioli crater, Mare Nectaris (~10 m precision vs 100 m target) |
| Payload | Up to 3 kg lunar sample return (2026-02-06) | ~100 tonnes to lunar surface (sustained variant target) (2024-04-16) | LEV-1 (2.1 kg hopper) + LEV-2 'SORA-Q' (0.25 kg sphere) (2024-01-19) |
| Contract value | — | $2.89B + $1.15B Option B = $4.04B total (2022-11-15) | — |
| 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. | Selected April 2021 as sole HLS provider for Artemis III. Architecture requires Super Heavy launch + multiple Starship tanker refueling flights in LEO + transit to NRHO + rendezvous with Orion (SLS). NASA OIG IG-26-004 (March 2026) flagged crew-rescue capability as open risk. October 2025: NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy reopened Artemis III lander contract to competition due to Starship development pace. | First Japanese soft landing; made Japan the 5th nation to soft-land on the Moon. One of two main engines failed at ~50 m altitude; lander touched down on its side but still met 100-m precision goal. Survived four lunar-night cycles despite not being designed for it; declared concluded 2024-08-23. |
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.