Completed · Success
LuxSpace's 4M was a privately funded lunar flyby with navigation and radiation experiments.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Long March 3C / G2
- Launch site
- Xichang, China
- Countries
- Luxembourg
- Mission types
- Technology demonstrator, Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Milestone
Modeled carrier geocentric perigee
Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data. Campbell et al. (2023) estimate a geocentric perigee at 18:24:34.3 UTC from later astrometry and backward propagation. The timing is sensitive to the solar-radiation-pressure model and is rounded here to the nearest second; it is not a direct navigation fix.
EarthFlyby
Back-propagated lunar encounter of the carrier
Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data. Campbell et al. (2023) report that backward propagation of the later observed WE0913A orbit gives a lunar encounter on 2014-10-28. This is a day-precision encounter date, not a measured closest-approach time or a state vector.
MoonMission end
Radio transmissions ceased; the carrier remained in orbit
LuxSpace operator Ghislain Ruy reports that the last 4M messages were received at around 01:35 UTC on 11 November 2014, after the carrier had passed its second apogee. The 2015 Small Satellite Conference abstract separately says the payload started to hibernate after 438 hours, but does not identify a precise hibernation epoch. This is the end of radio transmissions, not the end of the carrier flight; the launch stage remained in orbit and was later associated with the 2022 lunar impact.
Flyby
Lunar encounter of the carrier identified as WE0913A
Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data. Campbell et al. (2023) use later astrometry and orbital propagation to identify a lunar encounter on 2015-02-13. The catalog records only the published day, not an encounter time, distance, or state vector.
MoonImpact
The launch-stage carrier impacted the lunar far side
The experiment remained attached to the upper stage. The 2023 study identifies that carrier with WE0913A; this is not a separate spacecraft maneuver or impact.
Mission architecture
Vehicles
4M · Spacecraft · Attached 4M experiment on the Chang’e 5-T1 upper stage. Radio activity ended after the 2014 mission; the carrier is identified with the March 2022 lunar impactor by Campbell et al. (2023).
Destinations: Moon
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- 4M / Chang’e 5-T1 carrier: Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data; includes a predicted continuation · January 14, 2022 to March 4, 2022
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 6, 2026
- CALT / CGWIC / CLTC: LM-3A Series Launch Vehicle User’s Manual, Issue 2011, original document mirror — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- CelesTrak: FAQs, Two-Line Element Set Format — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- 4M Manfred Moon Memorial Mission — ESAMission page · Supports: mission claims
- LROC: location and morphology of the March 2022 rocket-body double crater — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- LROC NAC post-impact observation M1407760984R PDS4 label — NASAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Ruy et al.: original 4M EME2014 design and radio-tracking specification — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- 4M, A Moon Flyby Mission, LuxSpace EME2014 presentation — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Ruy: LX0OHB - 4M: A Moon Mission — OTHERPaper · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M): Development, Operations and Results of a Privately Funded Low Cost Lunar Flyby — OTHERPaper · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Minor Planet Center observatory codes, capture dated 2026-10-03 — OTHERArchive · Supports: mission claims
- Chang'e 5-T1 - NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- OHB Launch Missions — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Real-time cargo monitoring — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims
- Bill Gray: original WE0913A astrometry, orbit fits and daily synthetic orbit archive — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Campbell et al. (2023): Chang’e 5-T1 upper-stage identification, fitted trajectory and photometry — OTHERTechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- ARRL: 4M Lunar Flyby Spacecraft, Amateur Radio Payload Still in Earth Orbit — OTHEROther · Supports: mission claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context