The moon, Earth’s nighest celestial neighbor, has been associate object of marvel and mystery since yore.
Scientific missions over the centuries have bare-assed away layers of that mystery, however the moon continues to harbor several secrets. This timeline of humanity’s exploration of the moon, provided by independent agency, isn’t by any means that comprehensive however will highlight a number of the most important milestones qualitative analysis back four centuries:
1609: Hans Lippershey invented the telescope.
1610: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made the first telescopic observation of the moon.
1610: Thomas Harriot and Galileo Galilei drew the first telescopic representation of the moon.
1645: Michael Florent van Langren made the first map of the moon.
1647: Johannes Hevelius published the first treatisedevoted to the moon.
1651: Giovanni Battista Riccioli named craters after philosophers and astronomers.
1753: Roger Joseph Boscovich tested the moon has no atmosphere.
1824: Franz von Gruithuisen thought craters were fashioned by meteor strikes.
1920: Henry Martyn Robert Goddard recommended causing rockets to the moon.
1959: Soviet satellite Luna a pair of reached the moon, impacting close to the crater Autolycus.
1961: President John F. Kennedy projected a manned satellite program.
1964: NASA’s Ranger seven made the primary close-up TV photos of the satellite surface.
1966: Soviet ballistic capsule Luna nine created the primary soft landing on the moon.
1967: NASA’s satellite satellite missions completed photographic mapping of the moon.
1968: NASA’s Phoebus Apollo eight created the primary crewed flight to the moon, circling it ten times before returning to Earth.
1969: The Phoebus Apollo eleven mission created the primary landing on the moon and came back samples.
1969: Phoebus Apollo twelve created initial exactitude landing on the the moon.
1972: Phoebus Apollo seventeen created the last crewed landing of the Apollo program..
1976: Soviet Luna 24 returned the last sample to be returned from the moon for decades to come.
1990: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, on its way to Jupiter, obtained multispectral images of the western limb and part of the far side of the moon.
1994: NASA’s Clementine mission conducted multispectral mapping of the moon.
1998: NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission launched.
2007: Japanese SELENE (Kaguya) spacecraft launched.
2007: China’s Chang’e 1 lunar orbiter launched.
2008: India’s Chandrayaan 1 moon orbiter launched.
2009: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launched along with the LCROSS probe which crashed into the moon, revealing water ice.
2010: China’s Chang’e 2 lunar orbiter launched, taking photographs to prepare for future landings.
2011: NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission mapped the moon’s force field intimately.
2013: NASA’s satellite Atmosphere and mud atmosphere adventurer (LADEE) investigated the satellite atmosphere and mud.
2013: China’s Chang’e three with success landed a rover referred to as Yutu that photographed the moon’s surface.
2014: A take a look at vehicle for the longer term Chang’e five mission launched and flew by the moon to demonstrate a technique for satellite sample come back.
2018: The Queqiao satellite took position to relay commands and knowledge between the Chang’e four lander, regular to land on the so much facet of the moon, and Earth.
2018: The Chinese Chang’e 4 mission landed on the far side of the moon and began transmitting images.
2019: Israel’s first moon lander, Beresheet, crashed into the moon’s surface.
2019: Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to the moon, launched. The rover appears to have crashed, but the orbiter is in operation.
2020: China’s Chang’e 5 launched, landed on the moon, and returned with samples to Earth.
