The Apollo program was an American space initiative in the 1960s and early 1970s led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to land humans on the moon.
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The US government adopted the new technology to support the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, which would help astronauts fly to the moon. This drove manufacturing up and costs down, setting the stage for the modern computing era.
Using NASA's next-generation megarocket, the Space Launch System, Artemis I will take an uncrewed spacecraft on a 42-day journey around the moon. Subsequent missions plan to land the first woman on the lunar surface.
The strategy, which runs until 2050, focuses on advancing space science, fostering technological innovation, and exploring habitable planets and extraterrestrial life, beginning with landing astronauts on the moon before 2030.
To make room for moon rocks to be brought to Earth, a lunar "toss zone" was created, where items not deemed mission-critical were left behind, including the camera that broadcast Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.
This podcast series explores Apollo 11 through firsthand stories from the engineers, mission controllers, and astronauts who made the moon landing possible, culminating in 13 minutes of NASA archive audio leading up to the landing.
After decades of dormancy, NASA and SpaceX hope the Artemis program will provide opportunities for lunar resource extraction. Countries like India, China, and the UAE have also shown interest in developing future lunar economies.
This webpage offers tools to explore the moon digitally, including MoonTrek, a 3D lunar surface explorer, and the Daily Moon Guide, an interactive map for tracking the moon each day of the year.
As the Apollo 11 astronauts prepared for their journey to the moon, two speeches were drafted for President Richard Nixon: one to be delivered upon the astronauts' success and another to comfort the public in case of failure. This interactive explores the creation of a believable version of the latter.
Despite Apollo 11 starting as a 3,000-ton spacecraft, the only part of it that returned to Earth was the small command module, which splashed down in the Pacific Ocean carrying three astronauts and moon rocks.
Want to know more about the Space Race? This article from the National Air and Space Museum dives into this intense Cold War competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Explore how the race transitioned from military rivalry to a quest for space exploration dominance, leading to milestones like the first satellite, Sputnik, and the iconic Apollo 11 Moon landing.
Weave together the many narratives of world history with our highly curated and expanding selection of diverse, fascinating resources designed to showcase the breadth and richness of Earth's story, from the earliest traces of human civilization to the dramatic developments of contemporary cultures.