US EditionNASA's Lunar Trailblazer Mission Ends without Mapping Moon
UNITED STATES, AUG 4 – NASA lost contact with the Lunar Trailblazer satellite one day after its Feb. 26 launch and ended the $94 million mission on July 31 after unsuccessful recovery attempts.
- In a news release Monday, NASA said the Lunar Trailblazer mission ended on July 31, 2025, after losing contact one day after launch.
- Limited mission data revealed the Lunar Trailblazer orbiter went dark on Feb. 27, 2025, likely due to misaligned solar arrays depleting batteries, said officials.
- Despite months of efforts, ground teams indicated a slow spin as Lunar Trailblazer drifted into deep space, and controllers noted signals remained too weak for commands, said Andrew Klesh.
- At NASA Headquarters, Fox added `While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science` and Ehlmann noted the technology will inform other projects.
- Some technology will live on in the UCIS-Moon instrument, as NASA's Artemis II mission prepares for its lunar approach, bolstering future science efforts.
13 Articles
13 Articles
NASA writes off Lunar Trailblazer mission
NASA has formally ended a lunar orbiter smallsat mission more than five months after losing contact with it, another blow to the agency’s efforts at low-cost planetary missions. The post NASA writes off Lunar Trailblazer mission appeared first on SpaceNews.
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in disappointment
The Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon officially ended on July 31, but it wasn't a complete journey. NASA said today that its teams lost contact with the satellite shortly after its launch several months prior. The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as…
Launched to map the water on the Moon, the Lunar Trailblazer mission of the Nasa is officially a failure. Communication was never restored after take-off.
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