NASA’s Apollo program took humans to the Moon for the first time, but the famous Apollo 11 landing was only one part of an extraordinary program of space exploration that ran throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
1. Apollo Was Much More Than Six Moon Landings
NASA flew 11 crewed Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972. Six landed astronauts on the Moon, where a total of 12 people walked on the lunar surface. The numbering has an unusual gap. Apollo 1 was the name given to the mission whose three astronauts died during a preflight test in 1967, but there were no missions officially designated Apollo 2 or Apollo 3. The program resumed with the uncrewed Apollo 4, 5 and 6 test flights before Apollo 7 became the first crewed Apollo flight.
2. Around 400,000 People Helped Put Humans on the Moon
Apollo was far more than the work of the astronauts and engineers seen at Mission Control. At its peak, the program involved around 400,000 people, including scientists, engineers, technicians, factory workers and other specialists working across NASA, universities and thousands of companies. That enormous workforce designed and built the Saturn V rocket, Apollo spacecraft, spacesuits, computers, communications systems and lunar equipment, while also operating tracking stations, launch facilities and Mission Control.
The scale is even more remarkable considering the goal announced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961: land a person on the Moon and return them safely to Earth before the end of the decade. Apollo 11 achieved it just over eight years later.
3. Saturn V Was an Enormous Single-Use Rocket
The Saturn V that carried Apollo astronauts toward the Moon stood 363 feet (111 meters) tall, about the height of a 36-story building. Fully fueled, it weighed roughly 6.5 million pounds (2.9 million kg). Its five first-stage engines generated about 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Saturn V first flew on the uncrewed Apollo 4 mission in 1967 and was used for every crewed Apollo mission that traveled to the Moon, from Apollo 8 through Apollo 17.
All 13 Saturn V launches were successful. Yet each rocket was expendable: its stages were discarded during the journey, and only Apollo’s relatively small Command Module eventually returned to Earth.
4. Apollo 8 Was the First Crewed Mission to Orbit the Moon
In December 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit and reach the Moon. Apollo 8 completed 10 lunar orbits in about 20 hours, testing navigation, communications and procedures that would be essential for later missions.
It also produced one of the most famous photographs in spaceflight history. As Apollo 8 emerged from behind the Moon, Anders photographed the blue-and-white Earth above the lunar horizon — the image now known as Earthrise.
5. Apollo 10 Came Within About 9 Miles of the Lunar Surface
Just two months before Apollo 11, Apollo 10 rehearsed almost every stage of a Moon landing without actually touching down. Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan entered the Lunar Module Snoopy, separated from John Young in the Command Module Charlie Brown, and descended to just 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km / 9.7 miles) above the lunar surface. They tested the descent and ascent systems and practiced the maneuvers required to reunite with the Command Module. Apollo 10 was effectively the final full-scale rehearsal before NASA attempted the real landing.
6. Apollo 11 Was the First of Six Successful Moon Landings
On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit aboard Columbia. Apollo 11 was only the beginning. Five more Apollo missions successfully landed astronauts on the Moon over the next three years. Altogether, 12 astronauts walked on the lunar surface, and every one of them did so during the Apollo program. No human has returned to the Moon since Apollo 17 departed in December 1972.
7. Apollo 12 Landed Within Walking Distance of an Earlier Spacecraft
Apollo 11 proved NASA could land astronauts on the Moon. Apollo 12 demonstrated how accurately it could choose the landing site. In November 1969, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed the Lunar Module Intrepid close to Surveyor 3, an uncrewed NASA spacecraft that had been sitting on the Moon since April 1967.
The astronauts walked over to Surveyor 3, photographed it and removed several components, including its television camera. The parts were returned to Earth so scientists could examine how spacecraft materials had been affected by more than two years on the lunar surface.
8. Apollo 13 Held the Human Distance Record for 56 Years
Apollo 13 was intended to become the third Moon landing, but an oxygen tank exploded during the journey in April 1970. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise used the Lunar Module Aquarius as a temporary lifeboat while NASA worked out how to conserve power, water and oxygen and return them safely to Earth. Their emergency trajectory carried them around the far side of the Moon and approximately 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth, setting a human spaceflight distance record.
Remarkably, that record stood for almost 56 years, until the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission traveled even farther from Earth in April 2026. The three Apollo 13 astronauts returned safely to Earth four days after the accident.
9. Apollo Astronauts Brought Back 842 Pounds of Moon Material
Across the six lunar landings, Apollo astronauts collected about 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks, soil and core samples. These samples transformed scientists’ understanding of the Moon’s geological history, providing evidence of ancient volcanism, enormous impacts and the processes that formed its early crust. They also provided important evidence for the idea that the Moon formed following a giant impact involving the young Earth.
One particularly famous specimen was the Genesis Rock, collected during Apollo 15. Rich in anorthosite, it provided scientists with material from the Moon’s ancient highland crust. Apollo samples are still being studied today using scientific techniques that did not exist when the astronauts collected them.
10. Apollo 17 Was the Final — and Longest — Moon Landing
Apollo 17 landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972 and became the sixth and final crewed Moon landing of the Apollo program. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the lunar surface and completed more than 22 hours of moonwalks. They collected roughly 243 pounds (110 kg) of lunar material, more than any previous Apollo landing crew. Schmitt, a professional geologist, also became the first scientist to walk on the Moon.
The mission produced one of Apollo’s more ingenious field repairs. After Cernan accidentally damaged a fender on the Lunar Roving Vehicle, the astronauts eventually constructed a replacement using laminated lunar maps, clamps and tape. On December 14, 1972, Cernan climbed back into the Lunar Module after Schmitt, making him the last person to walk on the Moon. More than half a century later, no human has returned to the lunar surface.
