NASA's Lunar Atmosphere Dust and Environment Explorer—LADEE—was a robotic mission that orbited the Moon. LADEE confirmed the presence of neon in the lunar atmosphere for the first time.

GRAIL's twin spacecraft studied the internal structure and composition of the Moon in unprecedented detail for nine months and produced a detailed gravitational map of the Moon.

NASA's ARTEMIS mission (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun) is made up of two probes: P1 and P2. They were originally part of the successful THEMIS mission that orbited Earth and studied the aurora. NASA redirected the two probes to the Moon.

ARTEMIS is the first mission to orbit the Moon's Lagrangian points—points on either side of the Moon where the Moon and Earth's gravity balance perfectly.

NASA's Lunar Prospector orbited the Moon for almost 19 months to map its surface composition and to look for polar ice. The probe found evidence suggesting water ice at both poles.

The Radio Astronomy Explorer B (RAE-B) mission was the second of a pair of RAE satellites. It was placed into lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy over the frequency range of 25 kHz to 13.1 MHz.

Scientific objectives of the Apollo 17 mission included, geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Taurus-Littrow region; deploying and activating surface experiments; and conducting in-flight experiments and photographic tasks during lunar orbit and transearth coast.

Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly orbited the Moon while astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke were on its surface. Apollo 16's landing spot was chosen in order to gather geologically older lunar material. Charlie Duke left a picture of his family on the site.

Apollo 15 was the first of the Apollo "J" missions capable of a longer stay time on the moon and greater surface mobility. There were four primary objectives falling in the general categories of lunar surface science, lunar orbital science and engineering-operational.

The primary objectives of this mission were to explore the Fra Mauro region centered around deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Scientific Experiments Package, or ALSEP; lunar field geology investigations; collection of surface material samples for return to Earth.