Fact #141
Missions
The Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and Japan have all put something down on the Moon in one piece. Everyone else who has tried has crashed.
India managed it in 2023 at the second attempt, having lost a lander two kilometres up in 2019; Japan followed in 2024, upside down but working. Landing is hard in a way orbiting is not: there is no air to brake against and no second chance, so the whole descent runs on engines and arithmetic.
Source: NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (opens in a new tab) · checked Sep 2026