Here's a look at moon landing hits and misses

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Landing a spacecraft connected the moon has agelong been a bid of hits and misses.

Last year, a spacecraft built by Intuitive Machines done a NASA-sponsored programme enactment the U.S. backmost connected the satellite for the archetypal clip since the extremity of the Apollo program, but the lander ended up tipping connected its broadside and operated concisely connected the surface.

Now different U.S. institution — Firefly Aerospace — connected Sunday added its lunar lander to the triumph list, becoming the archetypal backstage entity to propulsion disconnected a afloat palmy satellite landing.

Both U.S. businesses are portion of NASA’s effort to enactment commercialized deliveries to the satellite up of astronaut missions aboriginal this decade.

The satellite is littered with wreckage from failed landings implicit the years. A rundown connected the moon’s winners and losers:

The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 successfully touches down connected the satellite successful 1966, aft its predecessors clang oregon miss the satellite altogether. The U.S. follows 4 months aboriginal with Surveyor 1. Both countries execute much robotic landings, arsenic the contention heats up to onshore men.

NASA clinches the abstraction contention with the Soviets successful 1969 with a satellite landing by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Twelve astronauts research the aboveground implicit six missions, earlier the programme ends with Apollo 17 successful 1972. Still the lone state to nonstop humans to the moon, the U.S. hopes to instrumentality crews to the aboveground by the extremity of 2026 oregon so, a twelvemonth aft a lunar fly-around by astronauts.

China, successful 2013, becomes the third state to successfully land connected the moon, delivering a rover named Yutu, Chinese for jade rabbit. China follows with the Yutu-2 rover successful 2019, this clip touching down connected the moon’s unexplored acold broadside — an awesome first. A illustration instrumentality mission connected the moon’s adjacent broadside successful 2020 yields astir 4 pounds (1.7 kilograms) of lunar rocks and dirt. Another sample instrumentality mission from the acold broadside successful 2024 delivers rocks and ungraded from the little explored portion of the satellite . Seen arsenic NASA’s biggest satellite rival, China aims to enactment its astronauts connected the satellite by 2030.

In 2023, Russia tries for its archetypal satellite landing successful astir a half-century, but the Luna 25 spacecraft smashes into the moon. The country’s erstwhile lander — 1976’s Luna 24 — not lone landed, but returned satellite rocks to Earth.

After its archetypal lander slams into the satellite successful 2019, India regroups and launches Chandrayaan-3 (Hindi for satellite craft) successful 2023. The trade successfully touches down, making India the 4th state to people a lunar landing. The triumph comes conscionable 4 days aft Russia’s crash-landing.

Japan becomes the fifth state to onshore successfully connected the moon, with its spacecraft touching down successful January. The trade lands connected the incorrect side, compromising its quality to make star power, but manages to crank retired pictures and science earlier falling soundless erstwhile the agelong lunar nighttime sets in.

A privately funded lander from Israel, named Beresheet, Hebrew for “in the beginning,” crashes into the satellite successful 2019. A Japanese entrepreneur’s company, ispace, launches a lunar lander successful 2023, but it, too, wrecks.

Intuitive Machines becomes the archetypal backstage outfit to execute a harmless satellite landing. The lander tipped implicit connected its broadside successful 2024, but worked concisely with constricted communications. Another U.S. institution — Astrobotic Technology — tried to nonstop a lander to the satellite the aforesaid year, but had to springiness up due to the fact that of a substance leak, yet returning to Earth and burning up implicit the Pacific.

There's different backstage unreserved to the satellite this twelvemonth aft Firefly landed Blue Ghost, delivering experiments for NASA. Intuitive Machines and ispace besides program much satellite deliveries.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives enactment from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely liable for each content.