Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
NASA (US) · Orbiter · 2009Operating
Operating: more than 17 years in lunar orbit (NASA, September 16, 2026), now in its sixth extended science mission (October 2025 through September 2028).
TL;DR· 6 min read
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been mapping the Moon since June 2009 and is the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever, now in its sixth extended science mission, October 2025 through September 2028. Of its seven instruments, LROC images the surface at 0.5 meters per pixel at its sharpest and Diviner measured minus 249 C in Hermite crater, the coldest temperature ever directly measured in the solar system. It photographs almost every landing and crash site that follows it, making it the ground truth for everyone else's coordinates.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the Moon's surveyor general: the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever, mapping the surface since 2009 and photographing essentially every landing and crash site of every nation and company that follows it. It is not a finished historical mission, and it did not single-handedly "discover water on the Moon": as of mid-2026 it is early in its sixth extended mission, and the famous 2009 water detection belonged to LCROSS, the impactor it launched with, while LRO's own instruments mapped the hydrogen and the cold traps.
Facts as of September 28, 2026, from the sources listed below.
17as of September 2026
years in lunar orbit
0.5m/px
meters per pixel, sharpest camera resolution
1.8+PB
petabytes in the LROC image dataset
-249C
coldest temperature ever measured in the solar system (Hermite crater)
Commonly wrong. Three recurring errors in English coverage. (1) "LRO discovered water on the Moon": the October 2009 Cabeus detection was the LCROSS impact experiment (a separate spacecraft that shared LRO's launch); LRO's contribution was observing the impact and then mapping hydrogen and permanently shadowed cold traps over years. (2) Stale attribution: since May 18, 2026, Intuitive Machines has managed LROC in place of Arizona State University, and the camera's website moved from lroc.asu.edu to lroc.im-ldi.com, so ASU-era links and "ASU runs the Moon camera" phrasing are out of date (the credit line on existing images remains NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University as printed). (3) The "coldest place in the solar system" claim needs its qualifier: Hermite crater's minus 249 C is the coldest temperature ever directly measured by a spacecraft; models suggest colder spots may exist elsewhere, so "coldest measured" is the defensible phrasing.
01Mission facts
Launch
June 18, 2009, on an Atlas V 401 from Cape Canaveral, riding with the LCROSS impactor↗
Launch date (NASA)
June 18, 2009; NASA lists LRO as an active mission and the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever↗
Instruments
Seven: LROC (imaging, 0.5 m/pixel NAC), LOLA (laser altimeter), Diviner (thermal), LAMP (UV), LEND (neutrons/hydrogen), CRaTER (radiation), Mini-RF (radar)↗
Orbit
Polar; ~50 km circular mapping orbit 2009-2011, then an eccentric frozen orbit with periapsis near the south pole to save propellant↗
Current mission phase
Extended Science Mission 6 (EM6), October 2025 through September 2028; PI Noah Petro (GSFC); 2025 senior review panel rated the proposal Excellent/Very Good↗
Propellant
10.093 kg usable as of November 2024, sufficient for station-keeping and orbit adjustments through EM6; battery shows some degradation but retains full margin↗
Coldest measured spot
Minus 249 C on the permanently shadowed floor of Hermite crater, measured by Diviner in 2009: the coldest temperature ever directly measured in the solar system↗
LROC dataset
More than 1.8 petabytes of imaging data supporting Artemis planning (NASA figure, May 2026)↗
LROC operations (new, May 2026)
NASA appointed Intuitive Machines prime contractor for LROC operations ($15.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee, three years) and for ShadowCam operations ($4.5 million, three years) on May 18, 2026 (LROC PI Mark Robinson); IM leads imaging operations, data storage and analysis, and LROC data continues to be distributed through NASA's Planetary Data System↗
Still imaging in 2026
LROC PDS release 67C (published September 14, 2026) covers NAC and WAC images acquired May 16 to June 15, 2026↗
Site documentation role
LRO has imaged the landing or impact sites of Luna 25 (crash crater, Aug 2023), Chandrayaan-3 (2023), SLIM and Chang'e 6 (2024), Blue Ghost and Athena (Mar 2025), and ispace RESILIENCE (impact, Jun 2025)↗
02Mission timeline
18 Jun 2009
Launched with LCROSS on an Atlas V 401 from Cape Canaveral SLC-41
23 Jun 2009
Entered lunar orbit; commissioning begins
9 Oct 2009
LCROSS Centaur stage impacts Cabeus crater; the experiment confirms water ice at the lunar south pole
2009
Diviner measures minus 249 C in Hermite crater, the coldest temperature directly measured in the solar system
Sep 2010
One-year exploration mission complete; LRO hands over from NASA's exploration directorate to science operations
2011
Low-altitude passes image the Apollo landing sites at about 0.5 m per pixel, resolving hardware and astronaut foot trails
May 2015
Orbit reshaped to an eccentric frozen orbit with low passes (about 20 km) over the south pole
Dec 2015
The modern "Earthrise" composite over Compton crater is released
Aug 2023
Images the fresh crater from Russia's Luna 25 crash, then India's Chandrayaan-3 landing site days later
Mar 2025
Images Firefly's Blue Ghost (within 10 hours of touchdown) and Intuitive Machines' toppled Athena
Jun 2025
Documents the impact site of ispace's RESILIENCE lander in Mare Frigoris
Oct 2025
Sixth extended science mission (EM6) begins, running through September 2028 after an Excellent/Very Good senior-review rating
18 May 2026
NASA appoints Intuitive Machines prime contractor for LROC ($15.5M) and ShadowCam ($4.5M) operations, both three-year contracts; LROC data continues through NASA's Planetary Data System
18 Jun 2026
17 years since launch; LRO remains the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever
Teal dots: events that physically happened in flight or on the Moon. Grey: announcements, namings, contracts, and targets.
03The mission
Every mission page in azmth Luna quietly depends on this spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched on June 18, 2009, on an Atlas V 401 from Cape Canaveral, sharing its rocket with the LCROSS impact experiment, and entered lunar orbit five days later. It was built for a one-year reconnaissance job: scout landing sites for a return to the Moon. Seventeen years on it is still working, which makes it the longest-lived lunar orbiting mission ever flown, and its maps are the reference frame for everyone else's landings, including the coordinates behind the pins on this site's globe.
LRO carries seven instruments. The LROC camera system resolves the surface at 0.5 meters per pixel at its sharpest, fine enough to pick out Apollo descent stages and the foot trails astronauts left in 1969. LOLA's laser altimeter built the definitive topographic model of the Moon, Diviner mapped surface temperatures, LAMP peered into permanently shadowed craters by starlight and UV skyglow, LEND sniffed for buried hydrogen, CRaTER characterized the radiation environment, and Mini-RF demonstrated radar imaging. In 2009 Diviner recorded minus 249 C on the permanently shadowed floor of Hermite crater near the north pole, the coldest temperature ever directly measured anywhere in the solar system, colder than the surface of Pluto.
The water story deserves precise telling. On October 9, 2009, the LCROSS experiment that launched with LRO steered its spent Centaur stage into Cabeus crater near the south pole, and the debris plume confirmed water ice. LRO observed the impact and then spent the following decade and a half mapping where cold-trapped volatiles could survive, work that now anchors NASA's choice of Artemis landing regions and the hunt for usable lunar ice.
Since 2022 LRO has settled into a second career as the Moon's documentarian of record. LROC photographed the fresh crater left by Russia's Luna 25 crash in August 2023, India's Chandrayaan-3 lander days after it arrived, Japan's SLIM on its nose in 2024, Chang'e 6 on the far side, Firefly's Blue Ghost within ten hours of its March 2025 touchdown, Intuitive Machines' toppled Athena near Mons Mouton, and the smudge where ispace's RESILIENCE hit Mare Frigoris in June 2025. The LROC team publishes precise coordinates with each of these images, which is why a 2009-vintage NASA orbiter is the ground truth for a commercial, multipolar Moon rush it predates by a decade.
As of mid-2026 the mission is healthy and busy. NASA's March 2025 planetary senior review rated the extension proposal Excellent/Very Good and cleared Extended Science Mission 6, which runs from October 2025 through September 2028; the review recorded 10.093 kg of usable propellant as of November 2024 and a battery with some degradation but full margin. One structural change was formalized on May 18, 2026: NASA appointed Intuitive Machines prime contractor for LROC operations ($15.5 million over three years) and for ShadowCam (a NASA instrument flying on Korea's Danuri orbiter, $4.5 million over three years), following LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson and his team, who had physically relocated to IM's Phoenix, Arizona facility by late 2025; LROC data continues to be distributed through NASA's Planetary Data System. The camera kept shooting through the handover: the September 2026 PDS release covers images acquired into mid-June 2026.
04In pictures
Tap a photo to enlarge.
05Sources
- NASA Science: LRO mission page (active mission, launch date, longest-lived lunar orbiter)
- NASA Science blog, May 18, 2026: NASA Transfers Management of Lunar Science Instruments (LROC to Intuitive Machines, 1.8 PB figure)
- 2025 NASA Planetary Mission Senior Review final report (EM6 Oct 2025-Sep 2028, propellant, health, E/VG rating)
- NASA NTRS: Long-Term Orbit Operations for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (orbit history)
- eoPortal: LRO (Atlas V 401 launch, instrument suite, 0.5 m NAC resolution)
- NASA Science image detail: Hermite crater (minus 249 C, Diviner 2009)
- NASA Science resource: Apollo 11 landing site imaged by LROC
- NASA Science: LCROSS mission (Cabeus impact and water confirmation)
- NASA news release, Sep 2010: NASA Details Achievements of Lunar Spacecraft (exploration-to-science handover)
- NASA: LRO Observes Crater Likely from Luna 25 Impact (Aug 2023)
- NASA: LRO Observes Chandrayaan-3 Landing Site (2023)
- NASA: LRO Views Blue Ghost on Moon's Surface (March 2025)
- NASA: LRO Views ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 2 Impact Site (June 2025)
- LROC Featured Image 1407: Blue Ghost Seen From Above (site coordinates 18.5623 N, 61.8103 E)
- LROC website (2026 PDS releases confirming ongoing image acquisition; usage terms at /about/terms)
- LPI/USRA feature, June 2026: First Light, Next Steps, 17 years of LRO
- NASA Science, Sep 16, 2026: NASA's Moon Orbiter Spots New, 'Once-in-Century' Moon Crater (LRO circling the Moon for more than 17 years)
- LROC team page (Science Operations Center based at Intuitive Machines, Phoenix)
- SatNews: Intuitive Machines secures prime contracts to operate key NASA and KARI lunar imaging instruments (May 19, 2026)
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