Wikipedia list of every landing mankind has ever made on other planetary bodies

A concise list of every landing mankind has ever made on other planetary bodies. Have to say, I did not know that the USSR had sent that many probes to Venus. (Via Betsy Mason)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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skrap

This is the perfect place to mention the “Expensive Hardware Lobbing” game page at NASA! How is it possible that I’m the first to link to this?

http://www.bio.aps.anl.gov/~dgore/fun/PSL/
Shelby Davis

I find it odd that China appears to have only one listing. I had just kind of assumed (what with the putting a guy in orbit six or so years ago) that they would’ve had a slew of probes up by now. Guess not.
- Anonymous
  
  There’s no political capital to be made from a probe; you can’t say “we have astronauts too!” The thing you have to remember is that the CPC is all about wanting China to be “respected” as much as the US and Russia are. That’s it. They have no real concerns for their people, for their culture, or for their environment. Of course there are individual people in the Chinese government who do, possibly a large majority; but the institution isn’t geared to it. What’s really fascinating about it is that it’s so counterproductive; I think that China’s wuffie would rise dramatically if the CPC simply stopped trying to throw its weight around and acted more like Europe.
Anonymous

I’m not gonna make that joke about sending a probe to Uranus. Please admire my restraint.
IronEdithKidd

NASA should have done a better job publicizing the five subsequent manned moon missions. It might have cut down on the number of nutters running around today yelling “fake!!!11″ at the first landing.
Mister Moofoo

The Russians landing so many probes on Venus sort of explains the appearance of one in “The Six Million Dollar Man”…
wgmleslie

The USSR even sent a balloon to Venus.
Brainspore

No mention of Poland’s nighttime mission to the sun?
- arkizzle / Moderator
  
  When I was a kid, that was an Irish joke.
  - Brainspore
    
    Interesting, in my family the Polish side gets the “stupid” jokes and the Irish side gets the “drunkard” jokes.
Anonymous

Im sure if there were sheep on the moon New Zealanders would have been the first up there-

(Actually, speaking from australia)
arkizzle / Moderator

In Australia the Irish get both.

I think my first experience of a Polish joke was the very end of Raising Arizona, with the Highway cop.
- LYNDON
  
  Heh. Stupid Aussies, not knowing about Polish jokes.
  
  (Actually, speaking from NZ: snap)
Yamara

Apollo 11 United States 20 July 1969
First manned landing.
Luna 15 Soviet Union 21 July 1969
Possible attempted sample return; crashed into Moon.

Um… I don’t remember hearing about that Soviet mission when I was a kid.

I mean, the Moon is a big place, but… the Russians were tailing Apollo 11? With something that smacked into the surface??

There’s a story there.
- Uncle_Max
  
  A reference to that story was made in a recent Dinosaur Comics strip: LINK
Engineer_

“Many probes to Venus” sounds like an old porn movie.
nanuq

I didn’t know anyone succeeded in landing a probe on Venus. Pretty awesome achievement considering the titanic pressure and horrendous temperature of the atmosphere.