On 20 July 1969, over 650 million viewers tuned into live television broadcast of Armstrong’s historic “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.
Apollo 16 marked the first manned mission with a lunar rover, enabling Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin to explore the lunar surface over three days and gather 77 kilograms of samples.
Apollo 11
NASA had to reach several milestones before landing a man on the moon, culminating in this mission on July 20, 1969 when Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin took their first steps onto lunar surface.
Prior to this milestone achievement, Armstrong and Aldrin needed to dock the LM with Collins’ CSM for lunar orbit insertion – an operation which went off flawlessly.
After several hours, Armstrong and Aldrin dismounted from Eagle, fired its engines to return it to lunar orbit, rejoined Columbia after spending nearly 24 hours there, then headed back towards Earth for homecoming – thus marking Apollo 11’s end. But its backup crew ran into difficulty.
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 had an unusual start when it was hit twice by lightning during its initial minute in flight – this would mark only the second and last such instance on an Apollo mission.
Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean successfully deployed the LM Intrepid in the Ocean of Storms within 535 feet from Surveyor 3 lander, proving precision landing was possible. Additionally, they deployed ALSEP instrumentation and the SNAP-27 atomic generator, and took photos.
Apollo 12 utilized a six-minute SPS burn to place it into lunar orbit – marking the first non-free-return lunar orbit ever used on an Apollo mission and saving fuel while permitting tracking antennae at Goldstone, California to monitor lunar landing and descent. Bean and Conrad visited Surveyor 3, collecting parts that they took back home for further examination on Earth.
Apollo 13
Apollo 13’s 1970 mission to the Moon came close to failure when an oxygen tank explosion in its service module threatened to cripple and kill all astronauts onboard, but Mission Control led by University of Minnesota alumni Deke Slayton rallied their crew’s courage and innovation in order to save it.
Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell successfully landed their Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Hadley-Apennine region, collected 43 kilograms of samples, sent back live video and data feeds back to Earth, and took back “Blue Marble” photographs which became iconic symbols for environmental causes.
Apollo 14
Apollo 14 was the third mission to reach the Moon. Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell made history when they decided to land their lunar craft in Fra Mauro highlands instead of maria regions as in Apollos 11 and 12, according to scientists who believed this approach would reveal more of the Moon’s geology than only returning samples from maria regions would allow.
Shepard and Mitchell deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), took two spacewalks – one to examine Cone Crater rim, the second one searching for rock samples in Sea of Tranquility; they also captured images with special Hasselblad cameras dubbed Spider and Gumdrop from within their command module, imaged lunar surface with special Hasselblad camera to document this mission.
This was the inaugural mission for Lunar Rover vehicle. Astronauts John Young, Charles Duke and Thomas Mattingly used it to search for volcanic rocks in Descartes highlands; however they found few deposits, contrary to scientists’ predictions.
Apollo 15
Apollo 15 launched in 1971. As America’s final crewed moon landing mission, this one was far more technologically advanced than previous missions and also marked the first use of lunar rovers on an Apollo mission.
Commander David Scott and pilot James Irwin piloted their Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) to four sites near Hadley Delta and Palus Putredinis over three EVAs, collecting various geologic samples; Sample #15415 would later become known as Genesis rock.
LRV technology allowed astronauts to explore much further away from the Lunar Module than was ever previously possible and to train geologic field techniques on NASA astronauts. After returning safely home on Command Module Endeavour, this flight proved successful and set the path for two more Apollo landing missions before lunar landings were finally discontinued in 1972.
Apollo 16
NASA’s Apollo program aimed to put humans on the Moon. Following Project Mercury, which put Americans into space for the first time ever, Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969 saw Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men ever to step foot onto its surface.
Apollo 16 marked the second in a series of “J missions,” designed for extended stays on the Moon, to explore descartes highlands where scientists hoped there may be volcanic rocks. Commander John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke made an attempt at landing.
On their EVA, astronauts put Galileo’s theory that objects in a vacuum have the same fall rate to the test by dropping a geological hammer and feather. Additionally, samples were collected as they drove Casper over 17 miles in three moonwalks before returning back home where Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly collected film from an analog camera inside of their Service Module.
Apollo 17
Apollo 17’s scientific focus, to investigate volcanic activity on the Moon, made it one of the most scientifically focused manned missions ever undertaken. Furthermore, this flight featured Harrison Schmitt – later appointed US Senator.
Schmitt and Cernan made two lunar landings after experiencing the sole launch pad failure in Apollo program history; first at Taurus-Littrow valley to install experiments and collect lunar samples; followed by several Moonwalks at Shorty crater where orange soil proved volcanic origins; finally at Shorty crater where volcanic materials were discovered at its edge.
Astronauts spent 75 hours on the surface, longer than any previous mission. In that time they discovered Troctolite 76535 which dates back 108 million years.
Apollo 18
Apollo 19 was launched as a J-type mission, featuring Harrison Schmitt as geologist. Schmitt had originally been scheduled for an H-type mission; however, due to the disastrous outcomes on Apollo 13, that mission was canceled and Schmitt instead joined this J-type crew instead.
The Apollo 13 crew arrived in the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area, with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt staying for more than 71 hours, driving a lunar rover and collecting over 115.5 kilograms of samples from around the moon.
After returning to their command module, they fired the service module’s engines and began heading back home using the Saturn V launch vehicle. This marked the last time an Apollo crew used this method after landing on the moon; subsequent Saturn V flights used as part of Skylab or space shuttle missions instead. Apollo 18’s lunar module (LM), however, remains on display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Brevard County Florida.
Apollo 19
Details: This was the inaugural manned landing in the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their initial steps into the lunar module before landing, retrieving samples, conducting experiments, and returning back to their command-service module.
This was the fourth and final Apollo “J” mission, intended for extended stays on the Moon’s surface. Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days driving a lunar rover, collecting samples, filming footage, driving an autonomous lunar rover rover and collecting footage while conducting science.
astronauts made one of the greatest discoveries in space exploration history when they realized that rocks on the Moon weren’t all meteorites but volcanic rocks from within it. Harrison Schmitt later described this momentous discovery as the most thrilling moment of his life and discovered during his stay that orange soil on the Moon resulted from magma rising up from beneath it.
Apollo 20
NASA announced their decision to cancel Apollo 20 less than six months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set humanity’s first lunar footprints, on January 4, 1970. Apollo 20 would have featured Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele for an uncrewed developmental flight of Odyssey Command/Service Module.
The spacecraft was intended to explore the polar regions and dark side of the moon, particularly its dark side. Instead of landing near Marius Hills, its preferred landing site would have been Copernicus; according to modern data analysis, explorers would likely have discovered exotic rock types such as olivine and pink spinel anorthosite during their travels.
William Rutledge claimed in 2007 to have participated in an alleged top-secret Apollo 20 crew, based on evidence found in video of their spacecraft that indicated differences from photos depicting it. His claim hinged around an apparently different shadow LM shadow in his video than was shown elsewhere of its appearance in other photographs of Apollo 20 spacecraft.