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| Attribute | LUPEX (ISRO lander + JAXA rover) Lunar Polar Exploration Mission Trust: Agency-primary Last verified Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | JAXA + ISRO | JAXA | Firefly Aerospace |
| Prime contractor | JAXA + ISRO | Mitsubishi Electric | Firefly Aerospace |
| Status | In development | Landed | Landed |
| Customer | JAXAISRO | JAXA | NASA-CLPS |
| Launch date | 2028 (NET) | 2023-09-06 | 2025-01-15 |
| Landing date | — | 2024-01-19 | 2025-03-02 |
| Landing site | Lunar south pole (permanently shadowed crater margin) | Near Shioli crater, Mare Nectaris (~10 m precision vs 100 m target) | Mare Crisium near Mons Latreille (lunar near side) |
| Payload | ~350 kg rover with drilling to 1.5 m + ISRO lander (2026-05-28) | LEV-1 (2.1 kg hopper) + LEV-2 'SORA-Q' (0.25 kg sphere) (2024-01-19) | 10 NASA CLPS payloads (2025-03-02) |
| Contract value | — | — | $101.5M (2025-03-02) |
| Outcome | Joint ISRO-JAXA water-ice prospecting mission, designated Chandrayaan-5 by India. India's cabinet approved Phase A on 2025-03-10. Launches on JAXA's H3. Carries American and European instruments alongside Indian and Japanese ones. | 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. | First fully successful commercial soft landing on the Moon (upright, full mission). Operated 346 hours (~14.4 lunar days of daylight + post-sunset science) before battery depletion. Awarded the 2025 Collier Trophy. |
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Underlying dataset: GET /api/moon/landers. Methodology: /moon/methodology.