A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned (robotic) missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on 13 September 1959.
The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon on 20 July 1969. There have been six manned U.S. landings (between 1969 and 1972) and numerous unmanned landings, though no soft landings have occurred since 1976.
Read more about Moon Landing: Unmanned Landings, Manned Landings, Scientific Background, Political Background, Early Soviet Unmanned Lunar Missions (1958–1966), Early American Unmanned Lunar Missions (1958–1965), Soviet Unmanned Soft Landings (1966–1976), American Unmanned Soft Landings (1966–1968), Transition From Direct Ascent Landings To Lunar Orbit Operations, Soviet Lunar Orbit Satellites (1966–1974), American Lunar Orbit Satellites (1966–1967), Soviet Circumlunar Loop Flights (1967–1970), Landings On Moons of Other Solar System Bodies, Proposed Future Missions, Hoax Accusations
Famous quotes containing the words moon and/or landing:
“I thought to hear him speak
the girl might rise
and make the garden silver,
as the white moon breaks,
“Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.””
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)