Moon landing facts for kids

This page is about the general topic. For the first crewed Moon landing, see Apollo 11 and Apollo program.

Map shows landing sites of Surveyor, Apollo and Luna missions

A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959.

In 1969 Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to land on the Moon. There were six crewed landings between 1969 and 1972, and numerous uncrewed landings. All crewed missions to the Moon were conducted by the Apollo program, with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972. After Luna 24 in 1976 there were no soft landings on the Moon until Chang'e 3 in 2013. All soft landings took place on the near side of the Moon until January 2019, when Chang'e 4 made the first landing on the far side of the Moon.

Early Soviet uncrewed lunar missions (1958–1965)
Early U.S. uncrewed lunar missions (1958–1965)
Crewed landings
- Apollo 11
Chang'e 4 (China)
Related pages
Images for kids
See also

Early Soviet uncrewed lunar missions (1958–1965)

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historical records were released to allow the true accounting of Soviet lunar efforts. Unlike the U.S. tradition of assigning a particular mission name in advance of a launch, the Soviets assigned a public "Luna" mission number only if a launch resulted in a spacecraft going beyond Earth orbit. The policy had the effect of hiding Soviet Moon mission failures from public view. If the attempt failed in Earth orbit before departing for the Moon, it was frequently (but not always) given a "Sputnik" or "Cosmos" Earth-orbit mission number to hide its purpose. Launch explosions were not acknowledged at all.

Mission	Mass (kg)	Launch vehicle	Launch date	Goal	Result
		Semyorka – 8K72	23 September 1958	Impact	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 93 s
		Semyorka – 8K72	12 October 1958	Impact	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 104 s
		Semyorka – 8K72	4 December 1958	Impact	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 254 s
Luna-1	361	Semyorka – 8K72	2 January 1959	Impact	Partial success – first spacecraft to reach escape velocity, lunar flyby, solar orbit; missed the Moon
		Semyorka – 8K72	18 June 1959	Impact	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 153 s
Luna-2	390	Semyorka – 8K72	12 September 1959	Impact	Success – first lunar impact
Luna-3	270	Semyorka – 8K72	4 October 1959	Flyby	Success – first photos of lunar far side
		Semyorka – 8K72	15 April 1960	Flyby	Failure – booster malfunction, failed to reach Earth orbit
		Semyorka – 8K72	16 April 1960	Flyby	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 1 s
Sputnik-25		Semyorka – 8K78	4 January 1963	Landing	Failure – stranded in low Earth orbit
		Semyorka – 8K78	3 February 1963	Landing	Failure – booster malfunction at T+ 105 s
Luna-4	1422	Semyorka – 8K78	2 April 1963	Landing	Failure – lunar flyby at 8,000 kilometres (5,000 mi)
		Semyorka – 8K78	21 March 1964	Landing	Failure – booster malfunction, failed to reach Earth orbit
		Semyorka – 8K78	20 April 1964	Landing	Failure – booster malfunction, failed to reach Earth orbit
Cosmos-60		Semyorka – 8K78	12 March 1965	Landing	Failure – stranded in low Earth orbit
		Semyorka – 8K78	10 April 1965	Landing	Failure – booster malfunction, failed to reach Earth orbit
Luna-5	1475	Semyorka – 8K78	9 May 1965	Landing	Failure – lunar impact
Luna-6	1440	Semyorka – 8K78	8 June 1965	Landing	Failure – lunar flyby at 160,000 kilometres (99,000 mi)
Luna-7	1504	Semyorka – 8K78	4 October 1965	Landing	Failure – lunar impact
Luna-8	1550	Semyorka – 8K78	3 December 1965	Landing	Failure – lunar impact during landing attempt

Early U.S. uncrewed lunar missions (1958–1965)

Artist's portrayal of a Ranger spacecraft right before impact

One of the last photos of the Moon transmitted by Ranger 8 right before impact

The U.S. was not able to reach the Moon with the Pioneer and Ranger programs, with fifteen consecutive U.S. uncrewed lunar missions from 1958 to 1964 failing their primary photographic missions. However, Rangers 4 and 6 successfully repeated the Soviet lunar impacts as part of their secondary missions.

Three U.S. missions in 1962 attempted to hard land small seismometer packages released by the main Ranger spacecraft. These surface packages were to use retrorockets to survive landing, unlike the parent vehicle, which was designed to deliberately crash onto the surface. The final three Ranger probes performed successful high altitude lunar reconnaissance photography missions during intentional crash impacts between 2.62 and 2.68 kilometres per second (9,400 and 9,600 km/h).

Crewed landings

The view through the window of the Lunar Module Orion shortly after Apollo 16's landing

A total of twelve astronauts have landed on the Moon. This was accomplished with two pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions. The missions spanned a 41-month period starting 20 July 1969, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, and ending on 14 December 1972 with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17. Cernan was the last man to step off the lunar surface.

All Apollo lunar missions had a third crew member who remained on board the command module.

Mission name	Lunar lander	Lunar landing date	Lunar liftoff date	Lunar landing site	Duration on lunar surface (DD:HH:MM)	Crew	Number of EVAs	Total EVA Time (HH:MM)
Apollo 11	Eagle	20 July 1969	21 July 1969	Sea of Tranquility	0:21:31	Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin	1	2:31
Apollo 12	Intrepid	19 November 1969	21 November 1969	Ocean of Storms	1:07:31	Charles "Pete" Conrad, Alan Bean	2	7:45
Apollo 14	Antares	5 February 1971	6 February 1971	Fra Mauro	1:09:30	Alan B. Shepard, Edgar Mitchell	2	9:21
Apollo 15	Falcon	30 July 1971	2 August 1971	Hadley Rille	2:18:55	David Scott, James Irwin	3	18:33
Apollo 16	Orion	21 April 1972	24 April 1972	Descartes Highlands	2:23:02	John Young, Charles Duke	3	20:14
Apollo 17	Challenger	11 December 1972	14 December 1972	Taurus–Littrow	3:02:59	Eugene Cernan, Harrison "Jack" Schmitt	3	22:04

Apollo 11

Buzz Aldrin as photographed by Neil Armstrong on the moons surface.

Apollo 11 was the first flight to send people to the moon. It was done by NASA, the American space group. It went up to space on 16 July 1969, carrying three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. On 20 July 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon, while Collins stayed in orbit around the Moon.

The flight was part of the Space Race. It finished the plan set by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to "land a man on the moon, and return him safely to the Earth", before the 1960s ended.

Chang'e 4 (China)

Chinese Chang'e 4 lander on the surface of far side of the Moon

Yutu-2 rover deployed by Chang'e 4 lander

On 3 January 2019 at 2:26 UTC, Chang'e 4 became the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the Moon. Chang'e 4 was originally designed as the backup of Chang'e 3. It was later adjusted as a mission to the far side of the Moon after the success of Chang'e 3. After making a successful landing within Von Kármán crater, the Chang'e 4 lander deployed the 140-kilogram (310 lb) Yutu-2 rover and began human's first close exploration of the far side of the Moon. Because the Moon blocks the communications between far side and Earth, a relay satellite, Queqiao, was launched to the Earth–Moon L2 Lagrangian point a few months prior to the landing to enable communications.

Yutu-2, the second lunar rover from China, was equipped with panoramic camera, lunar penetrating radar, visible and near-infrared Imaging spectrometer and advanced small analyzer for neutrals. As of July 2022, it has survived more than 1000 days on the lunar surface and is still driving with cumulative travel distance of over 1200 meters.

Images for kids

Still frame from a video transmission, taken moments before Neil Armstrong became the first human to step onto the surface of the Moon, at 02:56 UTC on 21 July 1969. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched this event, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.
Stamp with a drawing of the first soft landed probe Luna 9, next to the first view of the lunar surface photographed by the probe.
Model of Luna 16 Moon soil sample return lander
Model of Soviet Lunokhod automatic Moon rover
Launch of Surveyor 1.
Pete Conrad, commander of Apollo 12, stands next to Surveyor 3 lander. In the background is the Apollo 12 lander, Intrepid.
A timeline of the space race between 1957 and 1975, with missions from the US and USSR.
The U.S. Saturn V and the Soviet N1.
Apollo landing sites
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Lunar Module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the lunar surface.