CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Landing a spacecraft on the moon has been a series of successes and failures. Last year, Intuitive Machines put the US back on the moon with its lander, but it tipped over on its side. Firefly Aerospace recently achieved a fully successful moon landing, becoming the first private entity to do so.
The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 was the first to successfully touch down on the moon in 1966, followed by the US with Surveyor 1 four months later. NASA clinched the space race with its Apollo program in 1969 and has plans to return humans to the moon by 2026.
China emerged as a third country to land on the moon in 2013 with a rover named Yutu, and followed with a successful landing on the far side of the moon in 2019. India successfully landed its Chandrayaan-3 mission in 2023 after initially failing, becoming the fourth country to achieve a lunar landing.
Other countries have also had successes, including Japan’s successful landing in January. However, some attempts have been unsuccessful, such as Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft crashing into the moon in 2023 and ispace’s lander from Israel, Beresheet, which crashed in 2019.
Private companies are now pushing to reach milestones in lunar exploration. Intuitive Machines has achieved a safe moon landing and plans more deliveries, while Firefly Aerospace has successfully landed its Blue Ghost mission. Ispace also plans to send more lunar missions.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/moon-landings-failures-successes-545ea2f3ffa5a15893054b6f43bdbb98