How Many People Have Walked on the Moon?
12 astronauts have walked on the moon. Of the 17 Apollo missions launched by NASA, six were successful moon landings. On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 became the first of the missions to make a successful landing, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to walk on the moon.
More Moon Mission Facts:
- Of the 12 people that have walked on the moon, all were American men.
- 11 of the 12 people that walked on the moon were born in the 1930s; one was born in the 1920s.
- When Apollo 14 landed on February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard became famous for hitting golf balls on the moon. This was also the first mission televised on color TV.
- Apollo 11 was not only the first mission in which astronauts walked on the moon, but also the first time samples returned from another planetary body. The samples dated at 3.7 billion years old.
- The first manned Apollo mission failed before it took off; a fire during the preflight tests killed three US astronauts: Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee.
- Apollo 17 was the last of the missions to land on the moon — Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt were the last humans to walk on the moon. Estimates of the total cost of the Apollo project vary, generally ranging, in 2010 dollars, from about $130 to about $190 billion US Dollars.
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More Info: Smithsonian; Universe Today
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