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| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | CNSA | Intuitive Machines | ispace |
| Prime contractor | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | Intuitive Machines | ispace |
| Status | In development | Landed | Lost |
| Customer | CNSA | NASA-CLPS | private |
| Launch date | 2026-08 (NET) | 2025-02-27 | 2022-12-11 |
| Landing date | — | 2025-03-06 | 2023-04-25 |
| Landing site | Shackleton crater illuminated rim, lunar south pole | Mons Mouton plateau, lunar south pole (~400 m off target) | Atlas crater, Mare Frigoris (planned; impacted at altitude ~5 km) |
| Payload | 18 science payloads across orbiter, lander, rover, mini-hopper, and Queqiao-2 (2026-05-28) | 10 payloads delivered (2025-03-06) | Rashid rover (10 kg, UAE/MBRSC) + Sora-Q (0.25 kg, JAXA) + commercial (2023-04-25) |
| Contract value | — | $62.5M (2025-02-27) | — |
| 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. | 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. | Travelled ~1.4M km — at the time, furthest a privately funded spacecraft had flown. Software flagged the radar altimeter as faulty after the lander crossed a crater rim cliff and ignored its readings. Lander ran out of fuel hovering ~5 km above surface and free-fell. |
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Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.