Moon Landing Missions Learning Path

Definition and scope of Moon landings

A Moon landing (lunar landing) is the arrival of a spacecraft—crewed or robotic—on the Moon’s surface. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959, while the first crewed landing was Apollo 11 in 1969. Between 1969 and 1972, six crewed landings were carried out by the U.S. Apollo program; after Apollo ended in December 1972, soft landings did not occur again until Chang’e 3 in 2013. Most landings are uncrewed, and all successful soft landings occurred on the Moon’s near side until Chang’e 4 in 2019. The scope of Moon landings includes both “hard” and “soft” outcomes. Hard landings are intentional high-speed impacts (or crash landings), while soft landings decelerate to near-negligible speed at contact and are the only practical option for human missions. Achieving a landing requires leaving Earth’s gravity well (typically by rocket), then decelerating for safe surface contact; for soft landings, a landing rocket provides the needed delta-v. The broader mission scope also includes the supporting infrastructure and operations needed for crewed missions, such as lunar-orbit rendezvous and site selection, which became central after early direct-to-surface attempts. Uncrewed lunar orbiters mapped the Moon and helped identify hazards (including mascons) that could disrupt trajectories during final landing.

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Crewed Moon landings and Apollo missions

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