The NASA-funded Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft was lost shortly after its February 2025 launch.
Ground-based radar data collected on March 2 indicate that Lunar Trailblazer is slowly spinning in a low-power state.
Lunar Trailblazer missed key trajectory maneuvers and will no longer be able to enter its planned lunar orbit, ending the original mission.
Lunar Trailblazer adds to a list of recent NASA-led or NASA-aided small lunar spacecraft failures that includes LunaH-Map, Lunar Flashlight, Lunar IceCube, and LunIR.
Lunar Trailblazer had a program cost of $72 million and was intended to produce high-resolution global maps of the amount, distribution, and state of water on the Moon from orbit.
The NASA-funded Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft experienced power issues in its first telemetry on February 26 and lost communications on February 27.
NASA-funded Lunar Trailblazer launched as a rideshare alongside Athena on February 26.
Initial telemetry from Lunar Trailblazer on February 26 indicated that the spacecraft was experiencing power issues.
Lunar Trailblazer will spend four to seven months in a low-energy, fuel-efficient transfer trajectory before entering lunar orbit.
NASA lost communications with Lunar Trailblazer on February 27 and is working to restore telemetry and commanding of the spacecraft.
NASA moved the Lunar Trailblazer off the IMAP launch in 2022 and purchased a rideshare launch slot for Lunar Trailblazer on the IM-2 lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines.
Caltech expects Lunar Trailblazer to launch during a window from 2024-01-01 to 2025-01-05.
Lunar Trailblazer has completed environmental testing and is undergoing final software and operation readiness tests prior to installation of final ordinance, fueling, and shipping to Florida.
Lunar Trailblazer and the IM-2 lander will launch together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Spacecraft operations for Lunar Trailblazer will be performed from Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and will involve students from Caltech and Pasadena City College.
NASA selected ESCAPADE in 2019 as part of its SIMPLEx line of planetary science smallsat missions alongside Janus and Lunar Trailblazer.
Lunar Trailblazer is scheduled to launch late 2024 as a rideshare on the second Intuitive Machines lander.
Lunar Trailblazer was selected by NASA’s SIMPLEx program in 2019.
Lunar Trailblazer measures 3.51 m (3.5 m) wide with its solar panels fully deployed.
NASA placed a cost cap of $55,000,000 per mission for missions selected through that round of the SIMPLEx program, which included Janus, the ESCAPADE Mars mission, and Lunar Trailblazer.