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| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | CNSA | CNSA | JAXA |
| Prime contractor | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | Mitsubishi Electric |
| Status | In development | Landed | Landed |
| Customer | CNSA | CNSA | JAXA |
| Launch date | 2026-08 (NET) | 2024-05-03 | 2023-09-06 |
| Landing date | — | 2024-06-01 | 2024-01-19 |
| Landing site | Shackleton crater illuminated rim, lunar south pole | Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side) | Near Shioli crater, Mare Nectaris (~10 m precision vs 100 m target) |
| Payload | 18 science payloads across orbiter, lander, rover, mini-hopper, and Queqiao-2 (2026-05-28) | 1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earth (2024-06-25) | LEV-1 (2.1 kg hopper) + LEV-2 'SORA-Q' (0.25 kg sphere) (2024-01-19) |
| Contract value | — | — | — |
| Outcome | China's first dedicated lunar south-pole prospecting mission. Mini-flying probe hops into permanently shadowed regions to sample for water-ice volatiles. Italian laser retroreflector aboard the lander. | 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 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. |
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Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.