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| Attribute | Blue Moon Mark 1 (flight 2) Blue Moon MK1 / VIPER Delivery Trust: Trade-press only Last verified Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | CNSA | Intuitive Machines | Blue Origin |
| Prime contractor | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | Intuitive Machines | Blue Origin |
| Status | Landed | Landed | In development |
| Customer | CNSA | NASA-CLPS | NASA-CLPS |
| Launch date | 2024-05-03 | 2024-02-15 | — |
| Landing date | 2024-06-01 | 2024-02-22 | — |
| Landing site | Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side) | Malapert A crater, ~300 km from lunar south pole | Lunar south pole (VIPER traverse site) |
| Payload | 1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earth (2024-06-25) | ~100 kg payload capacity (1,908 kg launch mass) (2024-02-22) | VIPER rover (~430 kg dry) (2025-09-19) |
| Contract value | — | $118M (2024-02-15) | $190M (2025-09-19) |
| Outcome | 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. | First US Moon landing since Apollo 17 and first commercial soft landing in history. Lander tipped to ~30° on touchdown after landing-leg failure but transmitted data for ~7 days before sunset. | NASA's CLPS task order awarded 2025-09-19 after pulling VIPER from Griffin. Re-uses second MK1 lander production unit; mission cadence depends on Pathfinder Mission 1 outcome. |
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Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.