LUNAR TRAILBLAZER

Lunar Trailblazer was a small lunar orbiter, part of NASA's SIMPLEx program, with a mission to detect and map water on the lunar surface to determine how its form, abundance, and location relate to geology. Its mission was to aid in the understanding of lunar water and the Moon's water cycle. Lunar Trailblazer was launched on 27 February 2025, as a secondary payload on the IM-2 mission. The Principal Investigator (PI) of the mission was Bethany Ehlmann, a professor at Caltech. Soon after launch, NASA lost contact with the spacecraft. The mission never recovered and it was ended in July 2025.