Missions to the Moon have been conducted by the following nations and organisations (in chronological order): the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, the European Space Agency, China, India, Luxembourg, Israel, Italy, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.
To date, only one country has succeeded in landing humans on the moon: the United States of America.
The United States is the only country to have successfully conducted crewed missions to the Moon, with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972.
Soviet cosmonauts never orbited nor landed on the Moon. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of glasnost.
Richard Cavendish explains how, on September 12th, 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 2, the first spacecraft to successfully reach the Moon.
Images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface 50 years ago on July 20.
China has become the second country in history to put its flag on the moon, more than 50 years after the US first planted the Stars and Stripes.
All along, the Soviet moon program had suffered from a third problem—lack of money. Massive investments required to develop new ICBMs and nuclear weapons so that the Soviet military could achieve strategic parity with the United States siphoned funds away from the space program.
How many flags are on the Moon? A total of six flags have been planted on the Moon – one for each US Apollo landing.
How many countries have flags on the moon? The United States is the only country where people have physically placed flags on the moon. Four other countries — China, Japan, India and the former Soviet Union — and the European Space Agency have sent unmanned spacecraft or probes to the moon.
The demise was triggered when, in April 1970, an oxygen tank exploded two days after the launch of the Apollo 13 mission, threatening the lives of the astronauts on board. Missions after Apollo 17 were cancelled. But this was something of a pretext.
So why haven't astronauts been back to the moon in 50 years? "It was the political risks that prevented it from happening," Bridenstine said. "The program took too long and it costs too much money." Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station.
The first rover to visit the far side of the moon, China's Yutu-2, has found stark differences between there and the near side. These include stickier, more supportive soil on the far side and a greater abundance of small rocks and impact craters.
One of the mission's objectives is to study any exposed material from the mantle present at the landing site. This would provide insights into the internal structure and history of the Moon. Indeed, data from orbiting spacecraft show that the composition of the basin is different from the surrounding lunar highlands.
Statistics. As of May 2022, people from 44 countries have traveled in space. 622 people have reached Earth orbit. 628 have reached the altitude of space according to the FAI definition of the boundary of space, and 565 people have reached the altitude of space according to the American definition.
On July 20th we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. But little will likely be said of another man who was meant to walk on the moon, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
Luna 25 will be Russia's first lunar expedition since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Luna 24 lunar sample return in 1976 was the final Soviet moon mission.
For many years, the Soviets led this 'space race', sending the first man, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the earth on April 13, 1961. But the US was the first country to send men to the moon. The iconic moon landing took place on 21 July 1969.
One of the most iconic images from the Apollo 11 mission is of Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag on the surface of the Moon. The decision to plant the American flag on the Moon was made rather late in the lead-up to the mission.
In September 1959, the Soviets upped the ante considerably with the announcement that a rocket carrying the flag of the Soviet Union had crashed onto the moon's surface. In Washington, a muted congratulation was sent to the Soviet scientists who managed the feat.
Six flags were planted on the Moon – one for each Apollo landing. Apollo 11's flag was too close to the lander and was knocked over by the rocket exhaust when Armstrong and Aldrin took off again. But high resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that the other five are still standing.
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first of 12 human beings to walk on the Moon. Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).
Taking the Moon's Temperature
Daytime temperatures near the lunar equator reach a boiling 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120° C, 400 K), while nighttime temperatures get to a chilly -208 degrees Fahrenheit (-130° C, 140 K). The Moon's poles are even colder.