Chandrayaan 2: Recalling some of the important moon missions

New Delhi, Sep 18: As part of human exploration of the Moon, numerous space missions have been undertaken to study Earth's natural satellite.

India attempted to make history on 7 September by becoming just the fourth nation to successfully land a probe on the Moon. It came agonisingly close, but after journeying millions of kilometres, the Vikram lander lost contact in the final few hundred metres and crash-landed on the lunar surface.

But this is not the end of Indian space missions. India has miles to go.

It's all a reminder that, despite the fact that humans landed on the moon many times during the Apollo missions half a century ago, doing so remains a tough business.

Of the successful Moon landings, till date, there are 20 moon missions have been launched successfully by the 3 countries. Indian could have been the 4th country to have successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface if Chandrayaan-2 did not fail partially.

Luna 2 of the Soviet Union was the first spacecraft to reach its surface successfully, intentionally impacting the Moon on 13 September 1959. In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing, while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit.

There are numerous space missions have been undertaken to study the surface and climate of the moon. The very first successful trial (Luna 2) in this direction was made by the USSR.

Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to land on another celestial body. Luna 2 was launched on September 12, 1959, and impacted the moon on September 14, 1959.

In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled soft landing, while Luna 10 became the first mission to enter orbit.

Till date, there are 6 manned missions have been conducted successfully by the USA alone. The first manned mission on the moon was Apollo- 11 launched on 16 July 1969.

The below list of moon mission shows that all the manned moon missions are conducted by the USA and no other country could achieve this feat so far. It is very surprising that Russia started the space race but it could not manage to send a single manned mission so far.

So let's have a look at Moon Missions: