Lunar Exploration

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon. The first step onto the Lunar surface from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, the Eagle, fulfilled the promise of President John F. Kennedy that the U.S. would land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. It was the highlight of an extended U.S. program to study and map the Moon, beginning with Ranger 7 impacting the Moon on July 31, 1964 and culminating with Apollo 17, which left the Moon on December 14, 1972. The scientific return from these missions was immensely important and included nearly complete high-resolution imaging of the lunar surface, lunar samples, topographic, seismic, and gravity data, and information on the lunar environment. These data, as well as data from the Galileo, Clementine, and many Soviet missions, are currently available from the NSSDC.

Lunar Exploration Timeline

Ranger (1964 - 1965)
Surveyor (1966 - 1968)
Lunar Orbiter (1966 - 1967)
Apollo (1968 - 1972)
Galileo (1990, 1992)
Clementine (1994)
Soviet Missions (1959 - 1976)
Lunar Prospector (1997)
SMART-1 (2003)
Lunar-A (2005)
SELENE (2006)

Index to Lunar Data at NSSDC

The Apollo 11 mission

The Apollo 13 accident

The Moon Trees

Ice on the Moon

Precise positions of LM's and science experiments on the Moon

Where are they now?

Impact sites of the Apollo LM's and SIVB's

Moon fact sheet

The Moon home page

Planetary Science home page

NASA Official: Ed Grayzeck, edwin.j.grayzeck@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 23 August 2004, DRW