SpacecraftMoonEnded

Lunar Trailblazer

NASA small lunar orbiter designed to map the abundance, form and time variation of water on the Moon's surface. It launched on 26 February 2025 as a rideshare on the IM-2 Falcon 9; contact was lost the next day because its solar arrays were not oriented toward the Sun, and NASA ended the mission on 31 July 2025.

Objective. Produce high-resolution maps of lunar surface water: its form, amount and change over time.

Targeted

Facts

Kind: Spacecraft
Mission type: Prospecting
Target: MoonLunar orbit (global mapping)No map point: Orbital mission; no surface site.
Launch: 2025-02-26
Launch vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9 (rideshare with IM-2)
Phase: EndedJPL release of 2025-08-04 states the mission ended on July 31 (2025).
Outcome: FailureBasis: agency statement
Why it is included: Stated resource objective

Outcome statement (agency statement)

Despite extensive efforts, mission operators were unable to establish two-way communications after losing contact with the spacecraft the day following its Feb. 26 launch.

What comes next

This mission has ended.

Participants

Operators, payload owners, carriers and customers are recorded separately.

Organization	Role
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	Operator

Resources and evidence

Resource	Evidence
Water ice	Targeted
Volatiles	Targeted

Open evidence gaps

No evidence gap is recorded on this record. An empty list is not a finding that research is complete.

Sources

4 excerpts from 1 publication

One web address counts as one publication.

[1]NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends
NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryGovernment recordPublished 2025-08-04Accessed 2026-09-25Supports: phase, outcome
Despite extensive efforts, mission operators were unable to establish two-way communications after losing contact with the spacecraft the day following its Feb. 26 launch.
Quote matched the source text when accessed.
[2]NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends
NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryGovernment recordPublished 2025-08-04Accessed 2026-09-25Supports: objective, why it is included, resources
The mission aimed to produce high-resolution maps of water on the Moon's surface and determine what form the water is in, how much is there, and how it changes over time.
Quote matched the source text when accessed.
[3]NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends
NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryGovernment recordPublished 2025-08-04Accessed 2026-09-25Supports: launch date, launch vehicle
Lunar Trailblazer shared a ride on the second Intuitive Machines robotic lunar lander mission, IM-2, which lifted off at 7:16 p.m. EST on Feb. 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
Quote matched the source text when accessed.
[4]NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Moon Mission Ends
NASA Jet Propulsion LaboratoryGovernment recordPublished 2025-08-04Accessed 2026-09-25Supports: outcome
the spacecraft's solar arrays were not properly oriented toward the Sun, which caused its batteries to become depleted
Quote matched the source text when accessed.

Cite this record

SpaceMiningData, “Lunar Trailblazer”, dataset version a00fa2c68a45, built 2026-11-11, https://spaceminingdata.com/missions/nasa-lunar-trailblazer.html. Record checked 2026-09-25.