There were three lunar attempts last year, one each by China, India, and SpaceIL.  Unfortunately, only the Chinese lander had a successful soft landing. SpaceIL’s Beresheet and India’s Vikraam lander both crashed into the lunar surface.

It’s not bad: Chandrayaan-2 continues to orbit the Moon, collecting data for India’s space program.

And the Chang’e lander and rover Yutu-2 are doing science of their own.  The Chinese lander took the first panorama from the far side of the moon after it touched down last year. 

Speaking of rovers, there were two wheeled rovers exploring other worlds last year: NASA’s Curiosity and China’s Yutu-2. Together, they covered just over 2 kilometers of alien terrain.  Curiosity traveled 1.71 kilometers on Mars and Yutu-2 traveled a bit more than 357 meters during its year on the lunar surface.

Even though it hasn’t covered a lot of ground, Yutu-2 belongs in the “little rover that could” club.  It is now the longest-lived lunar rover with a mission duration of over a year. Previously, the Russian Lunokhod 1 rover held the record at 321 days of operation on the lunar surface.

Head over to the following websites to learn more about the three landers;

• Chang’e 4 mission a complete success (in Chinese, CNSA)
• Panorama of the Landing Site of Chinese Chang’e-4 Probe on Far Side of the Moon (IAU) 
• Gallery (SpaceIL)
• SpaceIL says “chain of events” led to crash of lunar lander (SpaceNews)
• Chandrayaan-2 Gallery (ISRO)
• Chandrayaan-2 Latest Updates (ISRO)

More information about the rovers can be found at:

• Lunokhod 1: 1st Successful Lunar Rover (Space.com)
• Pioneer on the back of the moon-the first anniversary of Chang’e 4 landing on the back of the moon (in Chinese from China’s Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Program)
• PIA19920: Curiosity Self-Portrait at ‘Big Sky’ Drilling Site (Photojournal, JPL)
• Curiosity Rover’s Location for Sol 2297 (NASA Mars Exploration Program)
• Curiosity Rover’s Location for Sol 2616 (NASA Mars Exploration Program) 

And finally, a moment to recognize some of the spacecraft missions that ended this year.

In no particular order:

• Opportunity Rover
• Jason-2
• Super Low Altitude Test Satellite
• Van Allen Probes
• Mars Cube One
• ASTERIA