NASA's $94 million Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in silence after launch failure
The mission was designed to find out some valuable facts by mapping and characterizing water reserves on the Moon's surface.
However, early on in its journey, the spacecraft lost communication and was presumed to be tumbling without sufficient power to operate. NASA recently announced the mission's end, which came as a disappointing outcome for a project that was supposed to support future lunar missions.
What is the Lunar Trailblazer Mission
Lunar Trailblazer is a 200‑kg orbiter under NASA's low‑cost SIMPLEx program, which was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26, 2025, as a rideshare on the IM‑2 mission to the Moon.
About 48 minutes into the flight, it separated successfully, and initial contact was made later that evening from Caltech's IPAC in Pasadena.
However, by early morning the next day, communication was lost due to intermittent power problems, and engineers soon found out that the spacecraft was spinning and unable to keep its solar panels pointed toward the Sun, according to information by NASA.
NASA tried to recover the lost contact
NASA worked tirelessly through spring and summer, attempting to reestablish contact in mid‑June and early July.
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Teams from NASA's Deep Space Network and various international observatories monitored the orbiter's trajectory, orientation, and potential sunlight exposure.
Scientists hoped that if enough sunlight hit the spacecraft's solar panels, the batteries might get enough charge for the Lunar Trailblazer to wake up and send a signal again. NASA even had backup plans ready in case they managed to reconnect and keep the mission going.
Despite these consistent efforts, Lunar Trailblazer drifted beyond the Moon and into deep space, spinning ever more slowly and becoming too distant to command or receive telemetry. Teams at JPL and Caltech finally acknowledged the mission could no longer yield scientific results, leading NASA to officially end it on July 31, 2025.
This unsuccessful mission is a lesson for future missions
According to reports by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 'At NASA, we undertake high‑risk, high‑reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to find revolutionary ways of doing new science,' said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
'While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low‑cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon.
'
The trailblazer had a companion
Lunar Trailblazer shared its ride with the Athena lander, part of Intuitive Machines' IM‑2 mission. Athena successfully touched down near the lunar south pole on March 6, 2025, but shortly thereafter toppled over. In a compromised orientation, its solar panels could not recharge the batteries, ending its surface mission prematurely, delivering only limited data before it went silent the next day.
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