Table of Anthropogenic Impacts and Spacecraft on the Moon

Green indicates spacecraft or crater imaged by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Red indicates location unknown with little or no supporting information.
White indicates location is approximately known, not yet imaged.

Notes

b - 3rd stage booster of Luna 2 impacted approximately 30 minutes after Luna 2 (NSSDCA).

c - Siddiqi, A., 2002, 2018; Ulivi and Harland, 2004.

c1 - Siddiqi, A., 2002, 2018; Ulivi and Harland, 2004. Luna 15 crash sites also given as 12 N, 59 E or 17 N, 49 E.

d - Object or impact imaged on surface by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), see LROC, 2016 and LROC, 2024.

e - Ksanfomality, 2018. Other results for Luna 5 have been reported, various impact sites listed: 8.17 N, 23.43 W (Minikin and Ulubekhov, 1972); 30 S, 8 W (Harvey, 2007); Siddiqi, 2002); 31 S, 8 W (Ulivi and Harland, 2004; Siddiqi, 2018); or 1.6 S, 25 W (Huntress and Marov. 2011).

f - Wagner et al., 2017: Luna 9 coordinates come from initial Pravda report, LROC images show no sign of lander at these coordinates, and area topography from LROC images does not match Luna 9 images, lander site is probably at least 10 km away, direction unknown.

g - Object left in lunar orbit with no tracking or communication, orbit presumably decayed, estimated year of decay in parentheses if available.

h - Boeing Co., 1968. For Lunar Orbiter 1, impact site also listed as 6.7 N, 162 E in other references (c)

i - Cloud et al., 1967; Surveyor Project Staff, 1968. Possibly fragmented, contact lost 2.5 minutes before landing. Soft landing estimate 0.43 N, 1.62 W; ballistic trajectory (impact) estimate 0.47 N, 1.44 W [also estimated at 0.37 N, 1.55 W (soft); 0.469 N, 1.086 W (impact), O'Neil et al., 1968].

j - Boeing Co., 1968. For Lunar Orbiter 2, impact site is also listed in places as 4 N, 98 E. For Lunar Orbiter 3, some references give 14.6 N, 91.7 W or 14.3 N, 97.7 W

k - Contact lost 17 July 1967, impact dates listed as 6 October, 31 October, or “no later than 31 October, 1967”, impact possibly between 22 and 30 degrees W longitude.

l - Boeing Co., 1968

m - Coordinates estimated from seismic data in Toksoz et al., 1974, see Orloff, 2000; Wagner et al., 2017

n - Unconfirmed, contact lost with Luna 18 during landing phase 100 meters above surface, object identified in LROC image M119482862R at given coordinates may be lander.

o - Ulivi and Harland, 2004

p - Apollo 16 mass spectrometer boom jettisoned after it failed to retract.

q - Estimate from Uesugi, K., 1996. The same paper also lists an estimated impact point of 34.3 S, 55.6 E

r - Lunar orbit/impact unconfirmed, Hagoromo may have gone into heliocentric orbit (NSSDCA).

s - Burchell et al, 2015

t - Impacted in Shackleton crater near south pole, exact coordinates unknown, estimate from Sridharen et al., 2010

u - JAXA, Selene status, 18 February 2009.

v - Projected to have impacted, location unknown (NSSDCA).

w - Xinhua News Agency, 2009. Given as 1.66 S, 52.27 E in Siddiqi (2018)

x - JAXA, 2009. Press release.

y - Marshall et al., 2012, LCROSS and LCROSS Centaur impacted in permanently shadowed Cabeus crater, not easily observable.

z - Yutu 2 rover still mobile as of January 2023, approximately 850 m northwest of Change'e 4, final coordinates TBD.

aa - Pers. Comm., N. Petro; Jones, 2020, Chang'e 5 ascent vehicle intentionally crashed after returning samples to orbiter, most probable site is Crater Regiomontanus (-0.21, -29.84).

bb - An object, considered most likely to be the booster stage of the Chang'e 5-T1, impacted the far side of the Moon on 4 March 2022 (NASA, 2022), double crater imaged by LROC camera.

• Coordinates based on DE 421 mean Earth/polar rotation axis reference frame (Williams et al., 2008).
• All dates in Universal Time Coordinated (UTC).
• All coordinates, explanations, and any future updates can be found in the NSSDCA database: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunartimeline.html
• Precision of knowledge of location is reflected in the precision of the coordinates, 0.001 degrees equals approximately 30 meters.

References

Boeing Co., Lunar Orbiter V Extended Mission Spacecraft Operations and Subsystem Performance, NASA CR-1142, August, 1968.

Burchell et al, SMART-1 end of life shallow regolith impact simulations, Meteoritics and Planet. Sci., 50, Nr 8, 1436-1448, 2015.

Cloud, J.D., et al., Surveyor IV flight performance final report, NASA-CR-93487, SSD 68189-4, JPL, 1967. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19680009190

Glavin, D.P., et al., In Situ Biological Contamination Studies of the Moon: Implications for Planetary Protection and Life Detection Missions, Earth Moon Planets, 107, 1, 87-93

Harvey, B., Soviet and Russian lunar exploration, Praxis, 2007.

Huntress, W.T., and M.Y. Marov, Soviet robots in the solar system - mission technologies and discoveries, Praxis, 2011.

JAXA, Kaguya impact press release, 11 June 2009, https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2009/06/20090611_kaguya_e.html

Jones A., Chang’e-5 spacecraft smashes into moon after completing mission, Space News, 8 December 2020. https://spacenews.com/change-5-spacecraft-smashes-into-moon-after-completing-mission/

Ksanfomality, L.V., Luna-5 (1965): Some results from a failed mission to the Moon, Cosmic Research, 56, 4, 276-282, 2018.

LROC, Spacecraft related coordinates - 2016 update, http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/938

LROC, Featured Lunar Sites, https://www.lroc.asu.edu/featured_sites

Marshall et al., Locating the LCROSS impact craters, Space Sci. Rev., 167, 71-92, 2012.

Minikin, S.N., and A.T. Ulubekov, Earth-space-moon, Mashinostroeniye Press, Moscow, 1972.

NASA Statement on March 4, 2022 Lunar Impact https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/nasa_statement_20220322.txt

NSSDCA database, Lunar Timeline https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunartimeline.html

O'Neil, W.J., et al., Surveyor 3 and Surveyor 4 flight paths, Tech. Rept. 32-1292, JPL, 1968. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19690009698

Orloff, R.W., Apollo by the numbers, NASA SP-4029, 2000. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029.pdf

Roncoli, R.B., Lunar constants and models document, JPL-32296, 2005. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/lunar_cmd_2005_jpl_d32296.pdf

Siddiqi, A.A., Deep Space Chronicle, NASA SP-2002-4524, 2002. https://history.nasa.gov/monograph24.pdf

Siddiqi, A.A., Beyond Earth, NASA SP-2018-4041, 2018. https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/beyond_earth_detail.html

Sridharan, R., et al., The sunlit lunar atmosphere: A comprehensive study by CHACE on the Moon Impact Probe of Chandrayaan-1. Planet. Space Sci. 58, 1567–1577, 2010.

Surveyor Project Staff, Surveyor IV mission report - Mission description and performance, NASA-CR-92707, Tech. Rept. 32-1210, NASA, 1968. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19680006793

Toksoz, N., et al., Structure of the Moon, Rev. Geophys. Space Phys., 12, 4, p. 549, 1974.

Ulivi, P., and D. Harland, Lunar Exploration: Human pioneers and robotic surveyors, Praxis, Chichester, UK, 2004.

Uesugi, K., Results of the MUSES-A “Hiten” Mission, Adv. Space Res., 18, 11, 69-72, 1996.

Wagner, R.V., et al., Coordinates of anthropogenic features on the Moon, Icarus, 283, 92-103, 2017.

Williams, J.G., et al., DE421 Lunar orbit, physical librations, and surface coordinates, JPL IOM 335-JW, 2008. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/ftp/eph/planets/ioms/de421.iom.v1.pdf

Xinhua News Agency, China’s lunar probe Chang’e-1 impacts Moon, 2 March 2009. http://en.people.cn/90001/90781/90876/6603492.html

Xin, L, China’s Chang’e-6 collects first rock samples from Moon’s far side, Nature, 4 June 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01625-0

NASA Official: Dave Williams, david.r.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 6 August 2024, DRW