Moon Landing

space exploration · Moon · Apollo 11 · achievement

First Moon visitors. Luna 2 crashed into the Moon in 1959, becoming the first human-made object to reach it. But it wasn't crewed, so it didn't have astronauts inside.

Apollo 11 landing. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Their mission showed that we could travel 240,000 miles into space and back safely.

Why we went. The Moon landing was a huge race between America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Reaching the Moon first meant showing the world which country had the best scientists and engineers.

Moon exploration. Since Apollo 11, several more crewed missions have landed on the Moon, and many robotic spacecraft have visited it to gather rocks and take pictures. We're still learning new things about the Moon today.