Moon

The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. It orbits about 378,000 kilometres away on average and takes 29.5 days to cycle through its phases. Tidal locking means the same side always faces Earth. Its diameter is 3,474 kilometres, about a quarter of Earth’s. Twelve people walked on it, on the six Apollo landings between 1969 and 1972, starting with Apollo 11. Apollo 13 was meant to land but returned without doing so. Artemis II flew around it in April 2026, and Artemis III is planned as the next step in NASA’s return. Robotic missions have also visited it.

Events

11 April 1970

Apollo 13
- Apollo spacecraft, Saturn V
- Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise
Apollo 13 was meant to be the third landing on the Moon, in the Fra Mauro highlands. After the rupture it became a rescue, worked out in real time by the crew and the flight controllers in Houston. The crew never landed, and every one of them came home.
18 videos
- Roberto Mastri
- Rearview Mirror Media
- Homemade Documentaries
16 July 1969

Apollo 11
- Apollo spacecraft, Saturn V
- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins
Apollo 11 was NASA's first attempt to land people on the Moon, and it worked. The Saturn V that launched it, the lunar module that landed and the command module that came home were the full stack of the Apollo programme, flown by a crew of three.
4 videos
- Vox
- Primal Space
- Progress – Science Documentaries
Apollo 16
- Apollo spacecraft, Saturn V
- John Young, Ken Mattingly, Charles Duke
1 video
- Everyday Astronaut
Artemis II
- Orion, SLS
- Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen
Artemis II was the first crewed flight of the Artemis programme and the first time people had flown to the Moon since Apollo 17. Orion Integrity was the first crewed spacecraft to fly on the Space Launch System.
5 videos
- Everyday Astronaut
- NASA
Artemis I
- Orion, SLS
Artemis I flew Orion to the Moon without a crew to prove that the rocket and the capsule were ready for people.
1 video
- Primal Space