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 | CNSA | SpaceX | CNSA |
| Prime contractor | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | SpaceX | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) |
| Status | In development | In development | Landed |
| Customer | CNSA | NASA-HLS | CNSA |
| Launch date | 2026-08 (NET) | 2027 (NET — Artemis III) | 2024-05-03 |
| Landing date | — | — | 2024-06-01 |
| Landing site | Shackleton crater illuminated rim, lunar south pole | Lunar south pole (NASA-curated candidate region near 84-90°S) | Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side) |
| Payload | 18 science payloads across orbiter, lander, rover, mini-hopper, and Queqiao-2 (2026-05-28) | ~100 tonnes to lunar surface (sustained variant target) (2024-04-16) | 1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earth (2024-06-25) |
| Contract value | — | $2.89B + $1.15B Option B = $4.04B total (2022-11-15) | — |
| 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. | 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-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.