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Mission record

Lunar Trailblazer

Also known as LunarTrailblazer

National Aeronautics and Space Administration · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

A NASA smallsat that was to map water on the Moon from polar orbit, lost when contact failed hours after launch.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Falcon 9
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Lunar Trailblazer launched as a secondary satellite with the IM-2 mission

    Earth

  2. Loss of contact

    Lunar Trailblazer lost radio contact

  3. Mission end

    Lunar Trailblazer mission formally ended without restored contact

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Lunar Trailblazer · Orbiter

    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.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: February 27, 2025 to December 31, 2035

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Lunar Trailblazer: Reconstructed · February 27, 2025 to December 31, 2035

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 14, 2026