Where did the astronauts land?

Short answer

On the Moon, all six Apollo crews that landed did so on the near side: Apollo 11 in the Sea of Tranquility in July 1969, followed by the Ocean of Storms, Fra Mauro, Hadley, Descartes and Taurus-Littrow. Back on Earth, those capsules splashed down in the Pacific.

Published: September 23, 2026 · Updated: September 23, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Aldrin stands beside the deployed U S. flag

The six places on the Moon

The six crews that landed on the Moon all did so on the near side, for a practical reason: there is no direct radio link with Earth from the far side. Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility in July 1969; Apollo 12 landed in the Ocean of Storms, a short distance from the Surveyor 3 probe, which had been there for two and a half years.

The following missions sought geologically more ambitious terrain, chosen for what their rocks could reveal about the Moon's history: Apollo 14 in the Fra Mauro highlands, Apollo 15 beside Mount Hadley and its winding rille, Apollo 16 in the Descartes highlands, and Apollo 17 in the Taurus-Littrow valley, in December 1972, the last time anyone has set foot on another world.

Where the trip back ends

The return has a different geography. Apollo capsules splashed down in the Pacific, where they were recovered by US Navy ships. Soyuz spacecraft, by contrast, land on solid ground: the usual zone is the Kazakh steppe, flat and sparsely populated terrain where rescue helicopters can arrive within minutes. Crew Dragon capsules return to the water, off the coast of Florida or California.

Traces that are still there

With no atmosphere or water to erase them, the marks of those visits remain: the descent stages of the lunar modules, scientific instruments, three electric rovers and the bootprints. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed all six sites from tens of kilometers up, in enough detail to make out the paths the crews traced between their spacecraft and their work sites.