1971
THE MOON
EVERYTHING
WORTH
KNOWING
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Jan. 4, 1959 Luna 1 (USSR) While it
missed its goal of actually striking the
moon’s surface, the Soviet Luna 1 was
the first successful lunar flyby.
2
Sept. 14, 1959 Luna 2 (USSR) The
first visitor to touch the moon’s face had
no landing gear, simply crashing into its
surface.
3
Oct. 6, 1959 Luna 3 (USSR) This
probe included a camera that sent back
the first pictures of the moon’s far side,
before returning and burning up in Earth’s
atmosphere.
4
July 31, 1964 Ranger 7 (U.S.) After
various failed Pioneer and Ranger
missions, Ranger 7 took photographs and
then crashed into the lunar surface.
5
Feb. 3, 1966 Luna 9 (USSR) The
Luna 9 probe achieved the first soft
landing on the moon.
6
June 2, 1966 Surveyor 1 (U.S.)
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Dec. 24, 1966 Luna 13 (USSR)
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April 20, 1967 Surveyor 3 (U.S.)
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Sept. 11, 1967 Surveyor 5 (U.S.)
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Nov. 7, 1967 Surveyor 6 (U.S.)
11
Jan. 10, 1968 Surveyor 7 (U.S.)
12
Dec. 24, 1968 Apollo 8 (U.S.)
Astronauts circled the moon, becoming
the first humans to see the far side with
their own eyes.
13
July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 (U.S.) Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on
the moon while some 530 million people
watched on live TV.
14
Nov. 19, 1969 Apollo 12 (U.S.)
15
Sept. 20, 1970 Luna 16 (USSR)
16
Nov. 17, 1970 Luna 17 (USSR) This
mission included Lunokhod 1, the first
lunar rover. It drove 6 miles in 10 months.
(It took the Mars Opportunity rover six
years to do the same.)
17
Feb. 5,
Apollo 14
(U.S.)
18
July 30, 1971
Apollo 15 (U.S.) This
mission marked the first
time humans drove a vehicle
on the moon, the Apollo Lunar Rover.
19
Feb. 21, 1972 Luna 20 (USSR)
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April 20, 1972 Apollo 16 (U.S.)
21
Dec. 11, 1972 Apollo 17 (U.S.)
Astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last to
board the lunar module, remains the last
human to walk on the moon.
22
Jan. 15, 1973 Luna 21 (USSR) The
Lunokhod 2 rover landed and drove 24
miles over four months, still holding the
record as the longest-lived lunar rover.
23
Nov. 6, 1974 Luna 23 (USSR)
24
Aug. 18, 1976 Luna 24 (USSR)
25
March 18, 1990 Hiten (Japan) Japan’s
first lunar mission orbited the moon,
studied dust trails and started the modern
age of lunar exploration.
26
Feb. 19, 1994 Clementine (U.S.) This
mission marked the United States’ return
to lunar orbit; it returned the first complete
photographic coverage of the moon,
including its poles.
27
Nov. 15, 2004 SMART-1 (ESA) The
European Space Agency’s first lunar
mission searched for evidence of the
impactor theory from orbit.
28
Nov. 5, 2007 Chang’e-1 (China)
China’s first mission to the moon brought
a wealth of instruments to study the
satellite’s surface and composition
from orbit.
29
Nov. 14, 2008 Chandrayaan-1 (India)
India’s first lunar mission purposefully
crashed a probe into the moon’s surface to
look for water in the resulting dust cloud.
30
Oct. 9, 2009 LCROSS (U.S.) In 2009,
the LCROSS probe smashed into the lunar
surface as a follow-up to Chandrayaan-1,
and it discovered further evidence of
water hidden just under the surface.
31
Dec. 14, 2013 Chang’e-3 (China)
China became only the third country to
make a controlled landing on the moon
and also to deploy a rover, named Yutu.
32
Jan. 3, 2019 Chang’e-4 (China) China
entered unexplored territory, placing
the first lander and rover (Yutu-2) on the
moon’s far side.
33
Apr. 11, 2019 Beresheet (Israel) The
country's first lunar lander made it within
10 miles of the surface before engine
malfunctions resulted in a crash.
The Ages of Lunar
Exploration
The moon has attracted our attention for
millennia, and as technology progressed, robotic
probes and then humans visited the world —
though in recent decades, we’ve ceded it to
the robots again. This map shows the most
significant landings and impacts on the lunar
surface, as well as noteworthy flyby missions.
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10
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14 17
15
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Far Side
USSR
U.S.
JAPAN
ESA
CHINA
INDIA
ISRAEL
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