On Sunday July 20, 1969, two American astronauts were the first people to ever set foot on the dusty surface of the Moon after an intense race for military and technological power between the USA and the Soviet Union.
In 1966, Luna 9 achieved the first soft landing and in 1969, the U.S.'s Apollo 11 achieved the first human landing. In the decades since, many nations have contributed to lunar orbiters and landers. As of January 2024, four nations have successfully landed on the Moon (USSR, United States, India, China).
Japan has become the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon, using precision technology that allowed it to touch down closer to its target landing site than any mission has before. However, the spacecraft might have survived on the lunar surface for just a few hours, owing to a power failure.
Apollo 11 was followed by six further trips to the Moon, five of which landed successfully. 12 men walked on the lunar surface in total. But in 1970 future Apollo missions were cancelled. Apollo 17 became the last crewed mission to the Moon, for an indefinite amount of time.
On July 20, 1969, two Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed a spacecraft on the Moon and walked on the Moon. The United States became the first – and only – country to have astronauts walk on the Moon. The Soviet Union never landed a man on the Moon.
India becomes the first country to successfully land on the moon's south pole
Is the US flag still on the moon?
We cannot see the flags on the Moon with Earthbound telescopes, but we know they are still standing tall thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The flag support bar latch failed on the Apollo 12 flag pole and remains forever collapsed on Oceanus Procellarum. Photo courtesy of NASA.
The first manned mission landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. This mission was known as Apollo 11 and was launched by the United States. Commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. The event was broadcast on radio and television around the world.
Highlights. South Korea launched Danuri (also known as the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter or KPLO) to the Moon on Aug. 5, 2022. It entered lunar orbit in December.
Japan landed its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, craft on the surface of the Moon on Jan. 20, 2024. Despite a power issue with the lander, the event holds both political and technical importance.
The U.S. remains the only country to have put humans on the lunar surface, most recently in 1972 with the Apollo 17 mission. But the U.S. government hasn't even tried for a soft landing — with or without astronauts on board — since then.
The Lunar Flag Assembly (LFA) was a kit containing a flag of the United States designed to be erected on the Moon during the Apollo program. Six such flag assemblies were planted on the Moon.
Who is the first country to land on the far side of the moon?
In 2019, China became the first country to land a probe on the far side of the moon. The Chang'e 4 mission delivered a small rover named Yutu-2 to the surface to explore the Von Kármán crater within the moon's South Pole-Aitken basin.
Which countries have landed on the dark side of the moon?
The United States has succeeded in five of eight landing operations. So far, China has tried two landing missions, both of which were successful. Israel's first and only attempt was unsuccessful. India's previous two lunar missions were orbiters rather than landing missions.
How many countries have actually been to the Moon?
Since then the following nations and organisations (in chronological order) have visited the Moon, after the Soviet Union and the United States: Japan, the European Space Agency, China, India, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Mexico, and Pakistan.
NASA will now target September 2025 for Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, and September 2026 for Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts near the lunar South Pole. Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains on track for 2028.
Six times, humans have landed on the moon, in pairs. The first person to set foot upon the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, during Apollo 11. The last person to do so was Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17.
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Four years later on April 12, 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1.
Spoiler Alert: The Answer is No. Here's why: 🇺🇸 The Moon is about 238,855 miles away from Earth. 🇺🇸 The smallest objects we can observe on the Moon are about a mile across. 🇺🇸 The flag is only 4 feet wide!
Unfortunately, there is no telescope on Earth powerful enough to spot any of the objects that have been left behind. Not even the Hubble could see what's left on the moon. It's designed to collect faint light of galaxies and nebulas, not objects on the moon.
NASA, lawmakers and the public are not willing to take on that level of risk again, especially after the Challenger and Columbia disasters. The Apollo missions expended enormous sums of money to send astronauts to the lunar surface for a few dozen hours.
China's Chang'e-6 probe has left a memorable mark on the far side of the moon. The Chinese national flag, unfurled on the probe's lander on Tuesday, will remain intact for a long, long time because it's made from a type of stone, or more precisely, fiber from basalt.
