Even if you weren’t there when Neil Armstrong famously said, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” you probably saw footage of the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969. Buzz Aldrin assisted Armstrong in planting an American flag on the lunar surface. Also, weren’t they in a golf cart as well? Or were just a few golf balls hit by them? During the Apollo 14 mission, Alan Shepard was actually pictured holding a golf club. Furthermore, it was not a golf cart. It was a lunar rover, and it also came later: David Scott and James Irwin used one for the first time during the Apollo 15 mission.
You can be forgiven for not remembering every detail because Americans lost interest in the Moon landings by the 1972 Apollo mission. You might be curious about the number of missions and people who have been to the Moon. In fact, twelve Americans were among the 24 astronauts who walked on the Moon during the nine Apollo missions. During the Artemis missions, more than 50 years later, four additional astronauts reached the Moon. What follows is a quick history.
Prelude: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo 7
After the Soviet Union sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would send the first man to the Moon by the end of the decade. NASA subsequently began a series of test missions, starting with Mercury (six one-man spaceflights, 1961–63) to get a sense of how humans function in space. Then there was Gemini (two uncrewed and 10 two-man spaceflights, 1964–66), which helped develop techniques for later lunar landings. These culminated in the Apollo program, which ran from 1966 to 1972 and started with a series of uncrewed flights around the Earth. The first crewed spaceflight of the program, Apollo 7 orbited Earth 163 times in 1968 to test the equipment.
Apollo 8
The first crewed mission to successfully complete lunar orbit and return safely to Earth was Apollo 8, which launched on December 21–27, 1968. William Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell, the crew’s three members, were the first to reach the Moon but did not land. 10 Apollo The crew of Apollo 10 were the next three men to reach the Moon. The Lunar Module was put through its paces on Earth orbit by Apollo 9’s three-man crew from March 3 to March 13, 1969, but they did not make it to the Moon. The Apollo 10 mission, which ran from May 18 to May 26, 1969, was regarded as a practice run for the moon landing. Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford commanded the Lunar Module close to the Moon’s surface, and John W. Young remained in orbit around the Moon in the Command Module. The routine that most subsequent Apollo missions would follow was established by the trio.
Apollo 11
Apollo 12
Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was meant to be another routine mission to the Moon, but an oxygen tank exploded two days after launch, and plans to land on Earth’s satellite were quickly aborted. However, the spacecraft needed to orbit the Moon in order to return home. To save energy, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert moved to the Lunar Module as a temporary lifeboat after shutting down the Command Module. They were trapped in lunar orbit for nearly four days, with little heat, food, or water, and high levels of carbon dioxide. Haise and Swigert became the thirteenth and fourteenth men to reach the Moon, respectively—Lovell had previously been to the Moon on Apollo 8. The crew made it safely back to Earth after a terrifying journey. The excursion was later depicted in a 1995 film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks.
Apollo 14
From January 31 to February 9, 1971, Apollo 14 was a little less terrifying. Alan Shepard, who became the fifth person to walk on the Moon and was the first American astronaut to travel into space on Freedom 7 in 1961, swung at a few golf balls. The sixth person to walk on the Moon was Edgar Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa became the 17th person to reach the Moon by orbiting in the Command Module.
Apollo 15
During Apollo 15 (July 26–August 7, 1971), astronauts David Scott and James B. Irwin became the seventh and eighth men to walk on the Moon, spending almost three days there. They were also the first to use the lunar rover, an electrically powered wheeled vehicle, while Alfred Worden, the 20th person to reach the Moon, orbited the celestial body in the Command Module.
Apollo 16
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the last crewed Apollo mission to the Moon. Harrison Schmitt, the first professional geologist on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, who had been to the Moon with Apollo 10, walked on the lunar surface for more than 22 hours, collecting more than 249 pounds (115 kg) of rocks and other material. They were the 11th and 12th astronauts to walk on the Moon, and Ron Evans, who manned the Command Module, became the 24th person to reach the Moon.
Epilogue: Artemis I and Artemis II
Artemis is named for the Greek goddess of the Moon, the twin sister of the god Apollo, for whom the previous American crewed lunar spaceflight program was named.
In 2017, close to 50 years after the last Apollo mission, NASA initiated the Artemis spaceflight program with the goal of returning astronauts to the surface of the Moon. Artemis I launched in 2022 and tested the safety and performance in deep space of the uncrewed Orion spacecraft. It orbited the Moon about 44,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from its surface on a 25.5-day flight. In 2026 Artemis II launched a crew of four astronauts around the far side of the Moon and back to Earth. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Jr., and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen became the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28th people to reach Earth’s satellite. Glover is the first Black man to fly to the Moon, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American (he is Canadian). The whole crew set the record for the farthest distance traveled by humans in space, 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers).
