Missions so far
Apollo 11
There have been two kinds of missions to the moon so far: unmanned, that is, a spacecraft may circle the moon or land on its soil; and manned missions in which human beings walk on its surface.
The U.S.: Apollo-11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 the six manned missions to the moon
Twelve American astronauts have walked on the moon.
They have brought back about 400 kg of moon’s rock and soil samples.
The U.S.S.R.: In 1959, Luna 1 circled the moon at an altitude of 6,000 km.
In 1959, the Soviet Luna 2 hit the lunar surface.
It took pictures of the far side of the moon and transmitted them to the earth.
In 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon.
U.S. : In the 1960s, the U.S. launched its Ranger spacecraft series which hit the lunar surface.
Surveyor robotic spacecraft soft-landed on the moon soil
Neil Armstrong
Lunar Orbiter spacecraft took pictures of the moon.
July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.
The European Space Agency (ESA) sent SMART-1 in 2003 to take images of the moon.
Chang’e-1
The first phase of the lunar exploration ended in 1976.
The second phase began in 1990
The Japanese launched the Hiten spacecraft to the moon.
In 2007, Japan orbited Lunar-A and Kaguya (earlier called Selene) and China its Chang’e-1 spacecraft to take images of the moon.
So far, there have been 67 missions (from various countries) to the moon.
Chandrayaan-1 is Mission 68 and India’s maiden mission to the moon.
In 1994, the U.S.’ robotic spacecraft mission identified what appeared to be traces of water ice on the moon’s surface.
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