List of spacecraft intentionally crashed into extraterrestrial bodies information
List of deliberate crash landings on extraterrestrial bodies
This is a list of uncrewed spacecraft which have been intentionally destroyed at their objects of study, typically by hard landings or crash landings at the end of their respective missions and/or functionality. This list only includes spacecraft specifically instructed to crash into the surface of an astronomical body other than the Earth, and also does not include unintentionally crashed spacecraft, derelict spacecraft, or spacecraft designed as landers. Intentionally crashing spacecraft not only removes the possibility of orbital space debris and planetary contamination, but also provides the opportunity (in some cases) for terminal science given that the transient light released by the kinetic energy may be available for spectroscopy; the physical ejecta can be used for further study.
Even after soft landings had been mastered, NASA used crash landings to test whether Moon craters contained ice by crashing space probes into craters and testing the debris that got thrown out.[1] Several rocket stages utilized during the Apollo space program were intentionally crashed on the Moon to aid seismic research, and four of the ascent stages of Apollo Lunar Modules were intentionally crashed onto the Moon after they had fulfilled their primary mission. In total at least 47 NASA rocket bodies have impacted the Moon.
A recent impactor, the unusual double-crater of which was photographed on March 4, 2022 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, is of unknown provenance; no space program has taken credit for it,[2] although a later study attributed it to a spent upper stage from the Chang'e 5-T1 mission.[3]
The Deep Impact mission had its own purpose-built impactor which hit Comet 9P/Tempel 1. Terminal approaches to gas giants which resulted in the destruction of the space probe count as crash landings for the purposes of this article.
The crash landing sites themselves are of interest to space archeology.
Luna 1, not itself a lunar orbiter, was the first spacecraft designed as an impactor. It failed to hit the Moon in 1959, however, thus inadvertently becoming the first man-made object to leave geocentric orbit and enter a heliocentric orbit, where it remains.
^"Crash Landing on the Moon". NASA Science. Archived from the original on April 16, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
^Chron, Ariana Garcia (June 29, 2022). "'Mystery rocket' that crashed into the Moon baffles NASA scientists". Chron.
^Wall, Mike (16 November 2023). "Rogue rocket that slammed into the moon last year confirmed to be Chinese vehicle". Space.com. Future US Inc. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
and 26 Related for: List of spacecraft intentionally crashed into extraterrestrial bodies information
This is a listof uncrewed spacecraft which have been intentionally destroyed at their objects of study, typically by hard landings or crash landings at...
unintended hard impacts. The list includes orbiters that were intentionallycrashed, but not orbiters which later crashed in an unplanned manner due to...
This listofextraterrestrial orbiters is a listingofspacecraft that achieved an extraterrestrial orbit. First artificial object on heliocentric orbit...
evidence ofextraterrestrial beings, grey aliens, multiple crashed flying saucers, alien corpses and autopsies, and the reverse engineering of extraterrestrial...
first spacecraft to reach its surface successfull, intentionally impacting the Moon on 14 September 1959. In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to...
Project, noted that nothing extraterrestrial has been observed. Radio astronomer Michael Garrett noted that crashed landings of alien craft "would imply...
the spacecraft's controllers intentionallycrashed LADEE into the far side of the Moon, which, later, was determined to be near the eastern rim of Sundman...
The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by...
Test spacecraft, or DART, was launched in 2021 and intentionally impacted Dimorphos in September 2022, successfully altering its orbit by crashing into it...
the spacecraft. In the case of sample-return missions, the aim of the mission is to return extraterrestrial samples to Earth, and sterilization of the...
impactor crashedinto Dimorphos, the minor-planet moon of the asteroid Didymos, with the explicit purpose ofintentionally deviate (slightly) the orbit of a...
Steven Novella, proponents of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) suggest these unexplained reports are of alien spacecraft, however the null hypothesis...
of the above bodies. Spaceflight portal Solar System portal Lists ofspacecraftListof uncrewed spacecraft by program Discovery and exploration of the...
their spacecraft was intentionally destroyed by remote self-destruct to prevent foreign powers from inspecting the capsule. Mushka was one of the three...
Mantell had been "shot down by an extraterrestrialspacecraft", and these "more colorful and exciting extraterrestrial rumors were hard to quash". Dick...
consisting of a laser communications terminal. The mission ended on April 18, 2014, when the spacecraft's controllers intentionallycrashed LADEE into the far...
in communication or cooperation with extraterrestrial visitors despite public disclaimers, and further that some of these theories claim that the governments...
Apollo crews on the Moon and continued exploration of other extraterrestrialbodies robotically. A period of détente followed with the April 1972 agreement...
achieved its first soft landing on an extraterrestrialbody and became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole with ISRO's...
a spacecraft for suborbital flights and performs first crewed flights. NASA Dawn probe was the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrialbodies, the...
(DART) spacecraft mission intentionallycrashedinto Dimorphos, the minor-planet moon of the asteroid Didymos, deviating (slightly) the orbit of a Solar...
samples. This was the first time that China launched a spacecraft from an extraterrestrialbody. On December 6, the ascent vehicle successfully docked...
several other Solar System bodies. Named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Galileo spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and an atmospheric...
first time landed on the Moon and any extraterrestrialbody, at Mare Tranquillitatis with the lander Eagle of the United States' Apollo 11 mission. Five...