40 percent lunar missions in last 60 years failed: NASA fact sheet
New Delhi, Sep 7: The success rate of lunar missions undertaken in the last six decades is 60 per cent, according to US space agency NASA's 'Moon Fact Sheet'.
Of the 109 lunar missions during the period, 61 were successful and 48 had failed, it stated.
In the early hours of Saturday, Indian space agency ISRO's plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the lunar surface did not go as per script.
The lander lost communication with ground stations during its final descent. ISRO officials said, adding that the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 second lunar mission remains healthy and safe.
This year, Israel, too, launched its lunar mission Beresheet in February 2018 but it crash landed in April.
From 1958 to 2019, India as well as the US, the USSR (now Russia), Japan, the European Union, China and Israel launched different lunar missions from orbiters, landers and flyby (orbiting the Moon, landing on the Moon and flying by the Moon).
The first mission to the Moon was planned by the US in August 17, 1958, but the launch of Pioneer 0 was unsuccessful.
The first successful mission to the Moon was Luna 1 by the USSR on January 4, 1959. It was also the first 'Moon flyby' mission. The success had come only in the sixth mission.
In a span of a little more than a year, from August 1958 to November 1959, the US and the USSR launched 14 missions.
Of these, only three Luna 1, Luna 2 and Luna 3 -- were successful. All were launched by the USSR.
The Ranger 7 mission launched in July 1964 by the US was the first to take close-up pictures of the Moon.
The first lunar soft landing and first pictures from the lunar surface came from Luna 9, launched by the USSR in January 1966.
Five months later, in May 1966, the US successfully launched a similar mission Surveyor-1.
The Apollo 11 mission was the landmark mission through which humans first stepped on to the lunar surface. The three-crewed mission was headed by Neil Armstrong.
From 1958 to 1979, only the US and the USSR launched Moon missions. In these 21 years, the two countries launched 90 missions. There was a lull in the decade that followed with no lunar missions from 1980-89.
Japan, the European Union, China, India and Israel were late entrants.
Japan launched Hiten, an orbiter mission in January 1990. This was also Japan's first Moon mission. After that, in September 2007, Japan launched Selene, another orbiter mission.
There were six lunar missions from 2000-2009 Europe (Smart-1), Japan (Selene), China (Chang'e 1), India (Chandrayaan-1) and the US (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LC CROSS).
From 2009-2019, ten missions have been launched of which five have been sent by India, three by the US, and one each by India and Israel.
Since 1990, the US, Japan, India, the European Union, China and Israel launched 19 lunar missions.
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ISRO successfully conducts second integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission
New Delhi (PTI): Space agency ISRO has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at the space station in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
The system is essential to ensure a safe recovery of the crew module -- the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight -- during re-entry and landing.
Union minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for successfully conducting the test.
"Congratulations #ISRO for the successful accomplishment of Second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) for #Gaganyaan, India's first Human Space flight scheduled next year. The second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) was successfully conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Station Sriharikota," Singh said in a post on X.
The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place on August 24, 2025, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft's return to Earth. An aircraft or helicopter drops the spacecraft from a height to test various systems under different scenarios.
These are the deployment of the parachute system in case the mission is aborted mid-flight, system performance when one parachute fails to open and the spacecraft's orientation and safety during splashdown etc.
In the IADT-02 test, a simulated crew module, weighing about 5.7 tonnes, was lifted by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter to an altitude of about three kilometres and released over a designated drop zone in the sea, near the Sriharikota coast.
In a statement, the ISRO said, "Ten parachutes of four types were deployed in a precise sequence during the descent of the crew module, gradually reducing the velocity for safe touchdown. Subsequently, the simulated crew module was successfully recovered in coordination with the Indian Navy."
