When did astronauts go to the moon?

Every human journey to the lunar surface fits inside a single window. Apollo 11 touched down in the Sea of Tranquillity on 20 July 1969; Neil Armstrong stepped out first and Buzz Aldrin followed, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module. Apollo 12 landed that November beside the Surveyor 3 probe. Apollo 13 never landed — an oxygen tank ruptured on the way out and the crew looped around the Moon and came home. Apollo 14 landed in early 1971, and Apollo 15, 16 and 17 followed with the lunar roving vehicle, longer surface stays and a stronger scientific programme. Apollo 17 lifted off from the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972, and with it the era closed.

Six landings, two moonwalkers each, gives twelve people who have stood on another world. A further twelve reached lunar distance without landing: the command module pilots who stayed in orbit, plus the crews of Apollo 8, which orbited the Moon at Christmas 1968, Apollo 10, which rehearsed everything but the descent, and Apollo 13. Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt was the only professional geologist among them and the last person to set foot on the surface.

The programme ended for budgetary and political reasons rather than technical ones; the last three planned missions were cancelled and their hardware went to museums. Since then, robotic landers from several nations have reached the surface, but no crew. NASA's Artemis programme aims to return astronauts to the Moon, with Artemis II sending a crew around it and a later mission targeting a landing near the south pole, where permanently shadowed craters may hold water ice.