Apollo Missions NASA / History
Six
more missions to the Moon
Ten more astronauts stood on the lunar
surface after Apollo 11
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The Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969 was the first mission to achieve the immense feat of placing explorers on the Moon, but it was by no means the last
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In the three years following Apollo 11, six more missions carried 18 more astronauts to the Moon
In November 1969, Apollo 12 achieved the second crewed lunar landing. Commander Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean became the third and fourth people to walk on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon orbited alone
In April 1970, Apollo 13 (crewed by James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert) attempted the third lunar landing, but an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks forced the crew to loop around the Moon and return to Earth without landing
In January 1971, Apollo 14 (crewed by Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell) succeeded in bringing a third team to the lunar surface, despite a mysterious docking malfunction and a faulty abort switch
Six months later, Apollo 15 (with astronauts David Scott, James Irwin, and Alfred Worden) made the first landing in rugged terrain near mountains and a deep valley
Scott and Irwin were the first to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) to explore the Moon
In April 1972, John Young, Charles Duke, and Ken Mattingly flew on Apollo 16. The mission investigated a highlands area of the Moon not previously explored.
Apollo 17, launched in December 1972, was the last crewed mission to the Moon to date. The only trained geologist to walk on the Moon, Harrison Schmitt, was the lunar module pilot.
Schmitt and Commander Eugene Cernan worked outside three times, for a total of 22 hours, and used the LRV to traverse great distances, while Ronald Evans observed the Moon from orbit
As of 2019, Eugene Cernan was the last person to lift his foot from the Moon’s surface