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List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies

Coordinates: 80°08′S 1°26′E / 80.13°S 1.44°E / -80.13; 1.44
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 orbital decay.

Colour key:

  – Unsuccessful soft landing, intentional hard landing, or mission still in progress.
  – Successful soft landing with intelligible data return. The tannish hue indicates extraterrestrial soil.
  – Successful soft landing, intelligible data return, and sample return to Earth. The greenish hue indicates terrestrial return.
  – Successful soft landing, data/voice/video communication, sample return to Earth, and safe astronaut landing and return to Earth.

Planets

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Mission Country/Agency Date of landing/impact Coordinates Notes
MESSENGER United States United States 30 April 2015 Probably around 54.4° N, 149.9° W, near the crater Janáček Intentionally crashed at end of mission.

Jupiter is a gas giant with a very large atmospheric pressure and internal temperature and thus there is no known hard surface on which to "land". All missions listed here are impacts on Jupiter.

Mission Country/Agency Date of landing/impact Notes
Galileo atmospheric probe United States USA 7 December 1995 Atmospheric probe of Jupiter.
Galileo United States USA 21 September 2003 Main craft was intentionally directed at Jupiter and disintegrated in Jovian atmosphere.

Saturn is a gas giant with a very large atmospheric pressure and internal temperature and thus there is no known hard surface on which to "land". All missions listed here are impacts on Saturn.

Mission Country/ Agency Date of landing/impact Notes
Cassini orbiter United States USA 15 September 2017 Main craft was intentionally directed at Saturn and disintegrated in Saturn's atmosphere

Planetary moons

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Earth's Moon

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Phobos
Mission Country/Agency Date of landing/impact Coordinates Notes
Phobos 2[citation needed] Soviet Union USSR February 1989 (planned) Phobos landing was planned but never attempted due to loss of contact

Titan
Mission Country/Agency Date of landing/impact Coordinates Notes
Huygens probe ESA 14 January 2005 10°17′37″S 163°10′39″E / 10.2936°S 163.1775°E / -10.2936; 163.1775 Titan floating lander. Successful soft landing. Transmitted data for 90 minutes following landing.

Other bodies

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Body Mission Country/Agency Date of landing/impact Coordinates Notes
Comet 9P/Tempel 1 Deep Impact United States USA 4 July 2005 Impactor.
Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Rosetta ESA 12 November 2014 Philae lander. Successful soft landing, but anchors misfired and Philae bounced multiple times before coming to rest. Philae transmitted briefly but could not maintain power due to its awkward landing.
29 September 2016 The Rosetta orbiter was intentionally crashed into the comet.

See also

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References

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  9. ^ "The Sky is Falling" Archived 2010-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, NASA, April 28, 2006
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  11. ^ Jones, Andrew (7 June 2017). "China confirms landing site for Chang'e-5 Moon sample return". GB Times. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  12. ^ "Chang'e-5 spacecraft smashes into moon after completing mission". SpaceNews. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  13. ^ Chandrayaan 3 - After The Landing What Happens Next?, 27 August 2023, retrieved 28 August 2023
  14. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ Robinson, Mark (26 February 2024). "Intuitive Machines IM-1 On The Moon!". www.lroc.asu.edu. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
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  17. ^ "NASA's DART Mission Hits Asteroid in First-Ever Planetary Defense Test". NASA. 27 September 2022.