Deliberate crash landings on extraterrestrial bodies

The crash sites of SELENE, Lunar Prospector, LCROSS and the Indian Moon Impact Probe

Deep Impact at Comet 9P/Tempel 1

Mars 2020 Skycrane crash

These are tables of space probes (typically orbiters or components thereof) which have been deliberately destroyed at their objects of study, typically by hard landings or crash landings at the end of their respective missions and/or functionality. This endeavor not only precludes the hazards of orbital space debris and planetary contamination, but also provides the opportunity in some cases for terminal science given that the transient light released by the kinetic energy may be available for spectroscopy; the physical ejecta remains in place for further study. Even after soft landings had been mastered, NASA used crash landings to test whether Moon craters contained ice by crashing space probes into craters and testing the debris that got thrown out.^[1]

Several rocket stages utilized during the Apollo space program were deliberately crashed on the Moon to aid seismic research, and four of the ascent stages of Apollo Lunar Modules were deliberately crashed onto the Moon after they had fulfilled their primary mission.

The Deep Impact mission had its own purpose-built impactor which hit Comet 9P/Tempel 1. Terminal approaches to gas giants which resulted in the destruction of the space probe count as crash landings for the purposes of this article.

The crash landing sites themselves are of interest to space archeology.

Luna 1, not itself a lunar orbiter, was the first spacecraft designed as an impactor. It failed to hit the Moon in 1959, however, thus inadvertently becoming the first man-made object to leave geocentric orbit and enter a heliocentric orbit, where it remains to this day.

Mercury[]

Mission	Country/Agency	Date of landing/impact	Coordinates	Notes
MESSENGER	United States	30 April 2015	Probably around 54.4° N, 149.9° W, near the crater Janáček	Intentionally crashed at end of mission.

Moon[]

Mission	Country/Agency	Date of landing/impact	Coordinates	Notes
Luna 2	USSR	13 September 1959	29°06′N 0°00′E / 29.1°N -0°E / 29.1; -0	Intentional hard impact.
Ranger 4	US	26 April 1962	15°30′S 130°42′W / 15.5°S 130.7°W / -15.5; -130.7	Intentional hard impact; hit lunar far side due to failure of navigation system.
Ranger 6	US	2 February 1964	9°24′N 21°30′E / 9.4°N 21.5°E / 9.4; 21.5	Intentional hard impact.
Ranger 7	US	31 July 1964	10°21′S 20°35′W / 10.35°S 20.58°W / -10.35; -20.58	Intentional hard impact.
Ranger 8	US	20 February 1965	2°43′N 24°37′E / 2.72°N 24.61°E / 2.72; 24.61	Intentional hard impact.
Ranger 9	US	24 March 1965	12°50′S 2°22′W / 12.83°S 2.37°W / -12.83; -2.37	Intentional hard impact.
Lunar Orbiter 1	US	29 October 1966		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Hiten	Japan	10 April 1993		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Lunar Prospector	US	31 July 1999	87°42′S 42°06′E / 87.7°S 42.1°E / -87.7; 42.1	Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed into polar crater at end of mission to test for liberation of water vapour (not detected).
SMART-1	ESA	3 September 2006		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Chandrayaan-1 Moon Impact Probe	India	14 November 2008		Impactor. Water found.
SELENE Rstar (Okina)	Japan	12 February 2009		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Chang'e 1	China	1 March 2009		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
Kaguya	Japan	10 June 2009		Lunar orbiter, intentionally crashed at end of mission.
LCROSS (Centaur)	USA	9 October 2009	84°40′30″S 48°43′30″W / 84.675°S 48.725°W / -84.675; -48.725 84°43′44″S 49°21′36″W / 84.729°S 49.360°W / -84.729; -49.360	Impactors -main craft flew through the plume of lunar dusted created by its own upper rocket stage gathering data. Water confirmed.
Longjiang 2	China	31 July 2019	16°41′44″N 159°31′01″E / 16.6956°N 159.5170°E / 16.6956; 159.5170^[2]	Micro-satellite, intentionally crashed at end of mission.

Mars[]

Mission	Country/Agency	Date of landing/impact	Coordinates	Notes
Mars Science Laboratory Skycrane	United States	6 August 2012	Bradbury Landing 4°35′09″N 137°25′52″E / 4.5859°N 137.4312°E / 4.5859; 137.4312	Debris field created by the heat shield, Sky Crane, and other components.
Mars 2020 Skycrane	United States	18 February 2021	Octavia E. Butler Landing 18°27′11″N 77°27′01″E / 18.453°N 77.4504°E / 18.453; 77.4504	Debris field created by the heat shield, Sky Crane, and other components.

Comets[]

Mission	Country/Agency	Date of landing/impact	Coordinates	Notes
Deep Impact	United States	4 July 2005	Tempel 1	The "Smart Impactor" had a payload of 100 kg of copper, which at its closing velocity 10.2 km/s had the kinetic energy equivalent to 4.8 tonnes of TNT.
Rosetta	ESA	30 September 2016	67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko	Intentionally crashed at end of mission.

Jupiter[]

Mission	Country/Agency	Date of landing/impact	Notes
Galileo atmospheric probe	USA	7 December 1995	Functioned for 57.6 minutes.
Galileo	USA	21 September 2003	Disintegrated in the Jovian atmosphere.

Saturn[]

Mission	Country/ Agency	Date of landing/impact	Coordinates	Notes
Cassini orbiter	USA	15 September 2017	9.4°N. 53°W.	30 seconds of terminal data, more than anticipated, were received prior to Cassini's disintegration in Saturn's atmosphere.