Lunex Lander

Mission Profile

Lunex Lander was a US Air Force crewed lunar landing concept from 1961, predating NASA's Apollo program, that proposed sending USAF personnel to the lunar surface using a specialized crew lander and a military-operated lunar base. The Air Force's Space Division envisioned Lunex as a vehicle for establishing US military presence on the Moon before the Soviet Union could do so, with an aggressive timeline targeting 1967. The Lunex program was cancelled as responsibility for crewed spaceflight was consolidated at NASA under the newly established civilian space agency, and the Apollo program subsumed all US lunar landing efforts. Lunex represents the USAF's ambition in the earliest days of the Space Race to have a direct military role in crewed lunar exploration.