Mumbai, July 15: According to NASA’s database on Moon missions, out of the 111 lunar missions conducted in the last seven decades, 62 were successful, 41 failed, and eight achieved partial success. This data comes as India launches its third mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-3, with the goal of achieving a soft landing on the lunar surface. If successful, India would become the fourth country to accomplish this feat, following the United States, China, and the erstwhile USSR.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set a challenging target for a soft landing on the lunar surface at 5.47 pm on August 23, a task that Chandrayaan-2 was unable to achieve. G. Madhavan Nair, former ISRO chairman, explained that the success rate of lunar missions is approximately 50 percent due to uncertainties encountered when rockets depart Earth’s gravitational field. Factors such as the influence of other planets and radiation conditions in space increase the chances of equipment failure.
From 1958 to 2023, various countries including India, the United States, the USSR (now Russia), Japan, the European Union, China, and Israel have launched different types of lunar missions such as orbiters, landers, and flyby missions. The first mission, Pioneer 0, launched by the US in August 1958, was unsuccessful. Subsequent missions that year from the USSR and the US also failed. However, the USSR’s Luna 1, launched in January 1959, achieved partial success as the first “Moon flyby” mission.
Significant milestones include the Ranger 7 mission launched by the US in July 1964, which captured close-up images of the Moon, and the Luna 9 mission launched by the USSR in January 1966, which marked the first successful lunar soft landing and the transmission of pictures from the lunar surface. The US achieved a similar feat in May 1966 with the successful launch of the Surveyor-1 mission. The Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 stands out as the historic moment when humans first stepped foot on the lunar surface, led by Neil Armstrong.
Between 1958 and 1979, only the US and the USSR conducted Moon missions, with a total of 90 missions during this period. There was a hiatus in lunar missions between 1980 and 1989. However, Japan, the European Union, China, India, and Israel later joined the pursuit. Japan’s first Moon mission, Hiten, was launched in January 1990, followed by Selene in September 2007. From 2000 to 2009, there were six lunar missions conducted by Europe, Japan, China, India, and the US.
Collectively, since 1990, the US, Japan, India, the European Union, China, and Israel have launched a total of 21 lunar missions, expanding our understanding and exploration of Earth’s natural satellite.
