[age_bronze]

No organization ever managed to land on the moon so far on the first try. My guess is that this won't be any different.

[msaharia]

No organization had ever put an orbiter around Mars in their first try. Until Mars Orbiter Mission of ISRO in 2014. I wouldn't rule them out. ;)

https://www.isro.gov.in/mars-orbiter-mission-completes-1000-...

[sremani]

NASA provided deep space navigation and tracking support services to this mission during the non-visible period of the Indian Deep Space Network.

[msaharia]

Yes, I'm aware. I actually work close to the Network Integrations Center in NASA. Most space work is collaborative. :)

[kaycebasques]

Maybe they have the benefit of learning from the failures of other countries? Not sure how much space agencies share information with each other.

[vishnugupta]

Interestingly, India is the first country to successfully send a Mars probe on the first attempt.

[trothamel]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_1

The US series of surveyor probes landed on the moon on the first try. I think it's reasonable to argue that these were the first US attempts to land on the moon - while the Ranger probes had seismometer capsules with retrorockets, they were meant to crash into the moon at 150 miles per hour and survive.

[smbullet]

Hmm this is a really morbid thought but I wonder when we'll see the first person die on the moon. Will it be an astronaut or a civilian? What would be different today if the Apollo 11 crew never came back?