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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.

Moon

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.

Venus

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.

Mars

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.

  1. ^ "The Sky is Falling", NASA, April 28, 2006

See also





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Published in July 2009.




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