Every Time Men Have Landed on the Moon
24/7 Wall St. Staff

NASA began cancelling future Apollo space flights a mere six months after Apollo 11 achieved the first successful landing of humans on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Originally, 20 missions were planned, but the agency determined that only five more would launch. The Apollo 17 splash-down on Dec. 19, 1972, then, marked the program’s end, and astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt would be the last people to set foot on the moon’s surface for the foreseeable future. (NASA is planning to land four astronauts on the lunar surface in September 2026, pushed back a year from the original projected date.)

Meanwhile, this Feb. 22, a small unmanned robotic lander became the first American spacecraft to settle on the moon’s surface since that last Apollo mission. Called Odysseus, the lander was built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, a self-described “end-to-end space exploration company.”

NASA used to build its own lunar landers. Instead, it now oversees a program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, in which the agency works with a handful of American companies to develop vehicles that can perform the technological and scientific functions needed to prepare for the next manned flights. (These are 30 NASA inventions we still use today.)

Odysseus, which was sent into space on a SpaceX rocket, carried various recording and transmitting instruments, including a stereo camera and radio equipment. It also carried 125 inch-wide sculptures of the celestial body by artist Jeff Koons, which he describes as “the first authorized artwork on the moon” — a necessary provision because several earlier pieces of art had been deposited on the lunar surface unofficially by various astronauts. (The day after Odysseus landed, it toppled over, taking some of its antennas out of use; nonetheless, it is said to still be gathering and sending back useful data.)

To compile a list of astronauts who landed on the moon during the Apollo program and their mission objectives, 24/7 Tempo reviewed resource material including NASA’s Apollo Program page and Space.com. The Apollo 13 mission of April 1970 is not included because it was aborted in flight due to a failure of the oxygen system.

Six three-man crews went to the moon, and the two astronauts from each mission who actually walked on the moon’s surface belong to one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. They are all white American males, hailing from nine states. All had military backgrounds except geologist Harrison H. Schmitt (Apollo 17). Schmitt, Charles M. Duke Jr., David R. Scott, and Buzz Aldrin are the only moon-walkers still alive today — at the ages of 88, 88, 91, and 94, respectively. (The United States is the only country that has landed manned space flights on the moon.)

The objectives of the lunar missions extended far beyond just gathering moon rocks. Beginning with Apollo 15, lunar modules gave the astronauts mobility enabling them to drive as much as 18 miles from the landing site, and they performed lunar orbital experiments, probed the moon’s mass and gravitational variations, deployed solar wind composition and seismic instruments, and acted as surveyors, scouting out future landing spots. Their heroic efforts gave us immeasurably valuable scientific information about the moon and its relationship to earth.

Scroll down to read more about every time men have landed on the moon:

July 16-24, 1969: Apollo 11

Astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Michael Collins
Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, became a licensed student pilot at 16, before he got his driver’s license. He and fellow Apollo 11 crew member Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, both served during the Korean War. Before Michael Collins piloted the command module during the Apollo 11 mission, he had become the third American to walk in space during the Gemini X mission in 1966.

1969: Apollo 11

Mission goals: Explore the moon’s surface in the lunar module; gather rocks and other materials; set up television equipment to return signals back to earth; photograph lunar terrain; deploy solar wind composition and seismic experiments.
Nov. 14-24, 1969: Apollo 12

Astronauts: Charles Conrad Jr., Alan L. Bean, Richard F. Gordon Jr.
The Apollo 12 mission reunited Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon. They had flown together on the Gemini 11 in 1966, a mission that set a then-record human space flight altitude of 853 miles. Conrad had flown into space twice before the Apollo 12 mission. The Apollo 12 space shot would be Alan Bean’s first space fight. He would later fly on Skylab 3. The Apollo 12 crew spent almost three times as long outside the lunar module than their Apollo 11 predecessors.

1969: Apollo 12

Mission goals: Explore the lunar surface; set up seismic, scientific, and engineering experiments; size up possible landing areas for future missions; retrieve remains of the Surveyor III spacecraft that had landed on the moon on April 20, 1967.
Jan. 31-Feb. 9, 1971: Apollo 14

Astronauts: Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, Stuart A. Roosa
The Apollo 14 mission marked Alan Shepard’s return to space after becoming the first American to leave the earth’s atmosphere 10 years earlier. Shepard set a distance record by walking more than 9,000 feet on the moon, pulling a cart of tools and collecting lunar samples. He and Edgar Mitchell spent a record 33 hours and 31 minutes on the lunar surface and collected 94 pounds of material. Stuart Roosa, the pilot on the mission, would later lead NASA’s space shuttle program.