Four of America's moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (
Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon
Twelve men walked on the Moon during six Moon landings of the Apollo program between July 1969 and December 1972. All landed on the surface only once, and five missions consisted of two or more surface EVAs. Four of them are alive as of January 2023.
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
CAPE KENNEDY -- America's first three Apollo astronauts died only 218 feet off the ground Friday night in a blazing explosion inside their space capsule atop its launch pad.
This was also the first mission to reunite crewmates from a previous mission (Lovell and Borman, Gemini VII). As of April 2023, all three Apollo 8 astronauts remain alive.
The crew of Apollo 13 had made it back to Earth safely. In Mission Control, pandemonium erupted as the exhausted flight controllers, joined by astronauts, managers and VIPs, rejoiced in the successful conclusion of a very perilous mission.
With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.
So, why haven't they sent humans back to the moon yet? The two primary causes are money and priorities. The race to put people on the moon was sparked in 1962 by US President John F. Kennedy's 'We Choose to Go to the Moon' address, in which he pledged that by the end of the decade, an American would walk on the moon'.
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).
Apollo 11 carried the first geologic samples from the Moon back to Earth. In all, astronauts collected 21.6 kilograms of material, including 50 rocks, samples of the fine-grained lunar regolith (or "soil"), and two core tubes that included material from up to 13 centimeters below the Moon's surface.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
The Apollo 13 mission was to be the third lunar landing in the program before an on board explosion forced the mission to circle the Moon without landing. This is the insignia of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.
Mattingly had been scheduled to fly on the Apollo 13 mission, but three days prior to launch, he was held back and replaced by Jack Swigert due to exposure to German measles (which Mattingly did not contract).
How many flags are on the Moon? A total of six flags have been planted on the Moon – one for each US Apollo landing.
As of 2020, there have been 15 astronaut and 4 cosmonaut fatalities during spaceflight that either crossed, or clearly was intended to cross, the boundary of space as defined by the United States (50 miles above sea level).
Polyakov's second spaceflight, the longest human spaceflight in history, began on 8 January 1994 with the launch of the Soyuz TM-18 mission. He spent approximately 437 days aboard Mir, conducting experiments and performing scientific research. During this flight, he completed just over 7,000 orbits of the Earth.
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959.
The four surviving Mercury 7 astronauts at a reception after Shepard's memorial service in 1998. Left to right: Glenn, Schirra, Cooper and Carpenter. All are since deceased.
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.
Apart from the Apollo 11 flag, which is believed to have been lost, the others were planted during Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17. According to images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter during different times of day, shadows in the areas where the flags were planted indicate they're still standing.
Proposals for human missions to Mars have come from e.g. NASA, European Space Agency, Boeing, and SpaceX. As of 2023, only robotic landers and rovers have been on Mars. The farthest humans have been beyond Earth is the Moon, under the Apollo program.
Cost To Go To the Moon
Taking that as 1973 dollars, that's roughly equivalent to a little over $157 billion in dollars today, or about $9.3 billion a year.
The TLI placed Apollo on a "free-return trajectory" - often illustrated as a figure of eight shape. This course would have harnessed the power of the Moon's gravity to propel the spacecraft back to Earth without the need for more rocket fuel.
As part of the Apollo 12 mission, the camera from the Surveyor 3 probe was brought back from the Moon to Earth. On analyzing the camera it was found that the common bacterium Streptococcus mitis was alive on the camera.
The Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969 was a huge feat of human endeavour, engineering and science. It was a moment that the world had been waiting for. 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.