This is a list of designs for crewed lunar landers, spacecraft intended to land on the Moon. A key aspect is achieving a soft landing, and for an ascent stage to successfully escape the Moon's gravity. [1] Another aspect is how many stages the design has to undergo to achieve its objective, and the number of passengers and amount of payload it can carry. [1]
Name | Manufacturer | Operator (program and operational timeline) | Stages | Crew | Payload Mass | Status | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Altair | Northrop Grumman | NASA ( Constellation, 2005–2009) | Descent, Ascent | 4 | 14,500 kg (32,000 lb) | Canceled | |
Apollo Lunar Module | Grumman | NASA ( Apollo, 1969–1972) | Descent, Ascent | 2 | Retired | ||
Boeing Lunar Lander | Boeing | Boeing, NASA ( Artemis, 2017–present) | Descent, Ascent | Rejected | [1] | ||
Dynetics HLS | Dynetics | Dynetics, NASA (Artemis, 2017–present) | Single-stage with drop tanks | 2-4 | Rejected | [2] | |
Blue Moon Mark 2 | Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Draper Laboratory | Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Draper Laboratory, NASA | Transfer, Lander/Ascent | 4 | Planned | [3] | |
Lanyue Lunar Lander | CAST | CMSA ( CLEP) | Descent propulsion stage, Lander/Ascent | 2 | Planned | ||
LK | RSC Energia/ Yuzhnoye Design Office | Soviet Union ( N1-L3, 1969-1974) | Descent, Ascent | 1 | Canceled | ||
Lockheed Martin Lunar Lander | Lockheed Martin | Lockheed Martin, NASA (Artemis, 2017–present) | Single-stage | 4 | 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) | Proposed | [4] |
Starship | SpaceX | SpaceX | Single-stage | Planned | [5] | ||
Starship HLS | SpaceX | NASA (Artemis, 2017–present), SpaceX | Single-stage | 4 | 100–200 t (220,000–440,000 lb) | Planned | [6] |
BIS Lunar Lander [2] | British Interplanetary Society | Single-stage | 3 | Studies (1939, 1947) | |||
Von Braun Lunar Lander [3] | US (1977) | Single-stage with drop tanks | 20 | 259 metric tons (with a crew of 10) | Study (1952) | ||
Horizon LERV [4] | US Army ( Project Horizon, 1966) | Descent, Ascent | 10 - 16 | 2,700 - 22,000 kg | Study (1959) | ||
Lunex Lunar Lander [5] | US Air Force ( Lunex Project, 1967) | Descent, Ascent | 3 | 20,500 kg | Study (1958–1961) | ||
Gemini lunar lander | NASA Langley Research Center, ( Project Gemini, 1963) | Single | 1 | Canceled | |||
LEK [6] | Soviet Union, ( Zvezda Moon base, 1974) | Descent, Ascent, Reentry | 3 | Canceled | |||
FLO Eagle lander | NASA ( Space Exploration Initiative, 1992–93) | Descent, Ascent | 4 | 5,000 kg | Canceled |