Lunar Prospector

1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories

Lunar Prospector

Strengthened evidence for hydrogen at lunar poles.

Era 3 of 6 · full record in the catalog

Launch
year known only: 1998
Lead / partner
United States
Target
Moon
Category
Lunar orbiter
Status
Success
Vehicle
unknown
Mass
unknown
Orbit / trajectory
unknown

Why it happened

Lunar Prospector flew during 1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories, as part of United States's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.

The mission

The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Strengthened evidence for hydrogen at lunar poles.

Results

Strengthened evidence for hydrogen at lunar poles.

Related missions

Lunar Prospec… Clementine — same_target Clementine SMART-1 — same_target SMART-1 Hiten — same_target Hiten Chang’e 1 — same_target Chang’e 1

Hiten

Partial success

Japan · 1990

Sources & image credits

  • Image credit: NASA · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-23)
  • Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
  • Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog