| LUNA (UNMANNED
MISSIONS BY USSR) |
SURVEYOR (UNMANNED
MISSIONS BY USA) |
APOLLO (MANNED
MISSIONS BY USA) |
| Luna
2: Launched 12th
September 1959. First manmade object to land on the Moon. |
Surveyor
1: Launched
on 30th April 1966, landing on 2nd June 1966. First American soft
landing on the Moon, sent back images of the surface. |
Apollo
11: Launched
16th July 1969, releasing a Lunar Module (Eagle) which contained
the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
This landed on the Moon on 20th July 1969, and the two astronauts
took the first steps of any human being on the surface of the
Moon. |
| Luna
9: Launched 31st
January 1966 and completed first soft landing on Moon on 3rd
February 1966. Sent back the first images from the surface of the
Moon which were sneakily published by a British newspaper before
the Soviet Union had a chance to see the pictures from their own
space craft! |
Surveyor
3: Launched
on 17th April 1967 and landed on 20th April. Took thousands of
images and analysed the soil. Apollo 12 landed near to Surveyor 3
and was visited by astronauts of that mission who took parts of
the space craft back to Earth. |
Apollo
12: Launched
14th November 1969. Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean walked on
the surface of the Moon and visited Surveyor 3 which had landed
nearby two years earlier. |
| Luna
13: Launched
21st December 1966 and completed a soft landing on the Moon on
24th December, completing scientific experiments after landing.
Contact was lost on 28th December 1966. |
Surveyor
5: Launched
on 8th September 1967. While on the surface of the Moon, it sent
back thousands of images and was deactivated three times during
night on the Moon and reactivated each time (night on the Moon
lasts 14 Earth days). |
Apollo
14: Launched
31st January 1971, landing in the site originally planned for
Apollo 13 (Apollo 13's Moon landing had to be aborted due to an
onboard explosion). Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell
walked on the surface on the Moon, and also played golf there! |
| Luna
16: Launched 12th
September 1970, landing on 20th September. It collected soil
samples and successfully launched from the Moon to return this
soil to Earth. |
Surveyor
6: Launched
on 7th November 1967, landing on 10th November. Sent back about
30,000 images, conducted experiments and launched from the Moon.
It reached a height of 4 metres and continued operating after
landing. |
Apollo
15: Launched on
26th July 1971.. David Scott and Alfred
Worden landed on the Moon's surface. They
used the first Lunar Rover during this mission, enabling them to
explore a greater area than previous astronauts were able to while
on the Moon. |
| Luna
17: Launched on
10th November 1970. After landing, a rover was released from the
lander which went for a drive on the surface of the Moon. It
travelled about 10 km and operated for 322 days. |
Surveyor
7: Launched
7th January 1968 and landed 10th January 1968. The final mission
of the Surveyor program which again sent back images and conducted
experiments. |
Apollo
16:
Apollo's penultimate manned mission to the Moon,
launched on 16th April 1972. Astronauts John Young and Charles
Duke and Ken Mattingly walked on its surface from 21st April 1972.
Like Apollo 15, they used a Lunar Rover to explore the mountainous
area of their landing. |
| Luna
20: Launched on
14th February 1972, landing on 21st February. Collected soil
samples, took off again and returned the samples to the Moon on
25th February. |
|
Apollo
17:
Final manned mission to the surface of the Moon,
launched on 7th December 1972. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and
Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon's surface. Eugene Cernan took
the last steps to this date on the Moon on 14th December 1972 |
| Luna
21: Launched on
8th January 1973. Deployed a rover after landing which went for a
drive until falling into a crater after about 5 months. |
|
|
| Luna
24: Launched on
9th August 1976, landing on 18th August. It collected soil samples
and returned them to Earth. This was the final mission of the
Soviet Union's Luna program. |
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