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Landings on other planets |
By
Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landings_on_other_planets This is a list of all spacecraft landings on other planets and bodies in the solar system, including soft landings and both intended and unintended hard impacts. The list includes orbiters that were intentionally crashed, but not orbiters which later crashed in an unplanned manner due to orbit decay.
For a list of all planetary missions, including orbiters and flybys, see List of Solar System probes.
Mission |
Country/Agency |
Date of landing/impact |
Notes |
Luna 2 |
USSR |
13 September 1959 |
First lunar impact. |
Ranger 4 |
USA |
26 April 1962 |
Intentional hard impact; hit lunar far side due to failure of navigation system. |
Ranger 6 |
USA |
2 February 1964 |
Intentional hard impact. |
Ranger 7 |
USA |
31 July 1964 |
Intentional hard impact. |
Ranger 8 |
USA |
20 February 1965 |
Intentional hard impact. |
Ranger 9 |
USA |
24 March 1965 |
Intentional hard impact. |
Luna 5 |
USSR |
12 May 1965 |
Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon. |
Luna 7 |
USSR |
7 October 1965 |
Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon. |
Luna 8 |
USSR |
6 December 1965 |
Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon. |
Luna 9 |
USSR |
3 February 1966 |
First successful soft landing; first pictures from the surface. |
Surveyor 1 |
USA |
2 June 1966 |
Soft landing. |
Surveyor 2 |
USA |
23 September 1966 |
Unsuccessful attempt at soft landing; crashed into Moon. |
Lunar Orbiter 1 |
USA |
29 October 1966 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission. |
Luna 13 |
USSR |
24 December 1966 |
Soft landing. |
Surveyor 3 |
USA |
20 April 1967 |
Soft landing. |
Surveyor 4 |
USA |
17 July 1967 |
Contact lost on descent. |
Surveyor 5 |
USA |
11 September 1967 |
Soft landing. |
Surveyor 6 |
USA |
10 November 1967 |
Soft landing. |
Surveyor 7 |
USA |
10 January 1968 |
Soft landing. |
Apollo 11 |
USA |
20 July 1969 |
First manned landing. |
Luna 15 |
USSR |
21 July 1969 |
Possible attempted sample return; crashed into Moon. |
Apollo 12 |
USA |
18 November 1969 |
Manned mission. |
Apollo 13 |
USA |
14 April 1970 |
S-IVB stage crashed for seismic research (rocket stages from a number of other Apollo missions that successfully landed were also crashed in this manner[1]) |
Luna 16 |
USSR |
20 September 1970 |
First successful robotic sample return. |
Luna 17/Lunokhod 1 |
USSR |
17 November 1970 |
Robotic lunar rover. |
Apollo 14 |
USA |
5 February 1971 |
Manned mission. |
Apollo 15 |
USA |
30 July 1971 |
Manned mission; lunar rover. |
Luna 18 |
USSR |
11 September 1971 |
Failed attempt at sample return; probable crash-landing. |
Luna 20 |
USSR |
21 February 1972 |
Robotic sample return. |
Apollo 16 |
USA |
21 April 1972 |
Manned mission; lunar rover. |
Apollo 17 |
USA |
7 December 1972 |
Manned mission; lunar rover. |
Luna 21/Lunokhod 2 |
USSR |
8 January 1973 |
Robotic lunar rover. |
Luna 23 |
USSR |
6 November 1974 |
Failed attempt at sample return; damaged on landing. |
Luna 24 |
USSR |
18 August 1976 |
Robotic sample return. |
Hiten |
Japan |
10 April 1993 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission. |
Lunar Prospector |
USA |
31 July 1999 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed into polar crater at end of mission to test for liberation of water vapour (not detected). |
SMART-1 |
ESA |
3 September 2006 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission. |
Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe |
ISRO |
14 November 2008 |
Impactor. |
SELENE Rstar(Okina) |
Japan |
12 February 2009 |
Lunar orbiter, casually crashed at end of mission. |
Chang'e 1 |
China |
1 March 2009 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission. |
Kaguya |
Japan |
10 June 2009 |
Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission. |
Mission |
Country/Agency |
Date of landing/impact |
Notes |
Venera 3 |
USSR |
1 March 1966 |
First impact on the surface of another planet. Contact lost before atmospheric entry. |
Venera 4 |
USSR |
18 October 1967 |
Crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact. |
Venera 5 |
USSR |
16 May 1969 |
Atmospheric probe; crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact. |
Venera 6 |
USSR |
17 May 1969 |
Atmospheric probe; crushed by atmospheric pressure before impact. |
Venera 7 |
USSR |
15 December 1970 |
First successful soft landing on another planet; transmitted from surface for 23 minutes. |
Venera 8 |
USSR |
22 July 1972 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 50 minutes. |
Venera 9 lander |
USSR |
22 October 1975 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 53 minutes. First pictures from surface. |
Venera 10 lander |
USSR |
25 October 1975 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 65 minutes. |
Pioneer Venus Multiprobe |
USA |
9 December 1978 |
One of four atmospheric probes survived impact and continued to transmit for 67 minutes. |
Venera 12 lander |
USSR |
21 December 1978 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 110 minutes. |
Venera 11 lander |
USSR |
25 December 1978 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 95 minutes. |
Venera 13 lander |
USSR |
1 March 1982 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 127 minutes. |
Venera 14 lander |
USSR |
5 March 1982 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 57 minutes. |
Vega 1 lander |
USSR |
11 June 1985 |
Soft landing; instruments failed to return data. |
Vega 2 lander |
USSR |
15 June 1985 |
Soft landing; transmitted from surface for 57 minutes. |
Mission |
Country/Agency |
Date of landing/impact |
Notes |
Mars 2 lander |
USSR |
27 November 1971 |
No contact after crash landing. |
Mars 3 lander |
USSR |
2 December 1971 |
Sent signal for only 20 seconds after landing. |
Mars 6 lander |
USSR |
12 March 1974 |
Contact lost at landing. |
Viking 1 lander |
USA |
20 July 1976 |
Successful soft landing; first pictures from surface. |
Viking 2 lander |
USA |
3 September 1976 |
Successful soft landing. |
Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover |
USA |
4 July 1997 |
First air bag landing and first Mars rover. |
Mars Polar Lander |
USA |
3 December 1999 |
Contact lost prior to landing. |
Beagle 2 |
UK/
ESA |
25 December 2003 |
No contact after landing attempt. It is not known for certain that the craft reached the Martian surface. |
MER-A 'Spirit' |
USA |
3 January 2004 |
Mars rover. |
MER-B 'Opportunity' |
USA |
25 January 2004 |
Mars rover. |
Phoenix |
USA |
25 May 2008 |
Landed in the north polar region, and investigated whether conditions there are suitable for life to have evolved. |
Other bodies
Body |
Mission |
Country/Agency |
Date of landing/impact |
Notes |
Eros (asteroid) |
NEAR Shoemaker |
USA |
12 February 2001 |
Designed as an orbiter, but an improvised landing was carried out on completion of the main mission. Transmission from the surface continued for about 16 days. |
Jupiter |
Galileo |
USA |
7 December 1995
(atmospheric probe)
21 September 2003
(main craft) |
Atmospheric probe, and, later, main craft were intentionally directed at Jupiter and disintegrated in Jovian atmosphere. [This scarcely constitutes a "landing" but is included here for completeness as an intentional impact on a planetary body.] |
Titan (moon of Saturn) |
Huygens probe |
ESA/
USA/
Italy(ASI) |
14 January 2005 |
Successful soft landing. |
Comet 9P/Tempel 1 |
Deep Impact |
USA |
4 July 2005 |
Impactor. |
Itokawa (asteroid) |
Hayabusa |
Japan |
20 November 2005 |
Planned sample return. |
Enceladus |
Cassini-Huygens (Cassini Orbiter) |
ESA/
USA/
Italy(ASI) |
12 March 2008 |
Orbiter. Passed through Enceladus' vapor plume. Not a landing, however, it did enter Enceladus' atmosphere. |
Note: Phobos landing was unsuccessfully attempted by Phobos 2 in 1989.
- ^ "The Sky is Falling", NASA, April 28, 2006
See also
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Published in July 2009.
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