Luna 9
Ocean of Storms
First successful soft landing and first pictures taken from the lunar surface. The exact site remains uncertain: no precise point is placed on the map.
Exact location unconfirmed: no map marker.
They reached
the landscapes you observe.
From the first probes to samples from the far side: discover 16 landmark missions and find their sites on the Moon.
6 Apollo missions10 robotic missions15 documented positions
Two sides, one history of exploration.
Gold circles represent Apollo; blue diamonds represent robotic missions. Select a marker to read its fact sheet. The photographs show the reference surface, without today’s phase or libration.
Near side
Far side
Mosaics: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University · LRO. Photograph sources. Orthographic projection centred on longitude 0° or 180°. Positions are approximate at this scale; symbol sizes do not represent spacecraft sizes. Luna 9 is not plotted because its exact site remains uncertain.
Missions through time.
Dates show the lunar landing in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), not the launch. This historical selection is not a complete inventory of lunar missions.
16 missions
Surveyor 1
Ocean of Storms
First American soft landing. Its photographs helped prepare crewed missions.
2.4745° S · 43.3398° W
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 11
Sea of Tranquillity
First crewed lunar landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected samples and installed experiments on a volcanic plain.
0.6742° N · 23.4731° E
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 12
Ocean of Storms
The crew landed near Surveyor 3. This proximity demonstrated landing precision and allowed them to visit the probe.
3.0128° S · 23.4219° W
Locate on the map ↑Luna 16
Sea of Fertility
First robotic mission to return a lunar soil sample to Earth.
0.5137° S · 56.3638° E
Locate on the map ↑Luna 17 / Lunokhod 1
Sea of Rains
The lander delivered Lunokhod 1, a mobile robot driven from Earth. The point represents the lander, not the rover’s final position.
38.2376° N · 35.0016° W
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 14
Fra Mauro
Exploration of the Fra Mauro terrain to study material associated with the formation of the Imbrium basin.
3.6459° S · 17.4719° W
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 15
Hadley–Apennines
First use of the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle. The rover extended exploration around the Apennines and Hadley Rille.
26.1324° N · 3.6333° E
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 16
Descartes Highlands
The crew studied the highlands. Samples shed light on the role of impacts in the history of this terrain.
8.9734° S · 15.5011° E
Locate on the map ↑Apollo 17
Taurus–Littrow Valley
Last landing of the Apollo programme. Exploration combined a rover with fieldwork by geologist Harrison Schmitt.
20.1911° N · 30.7723° E
Locate on the map ↑Chang’e 3 / Yutu
Sea of Rains
A lander and the Yutu rover explored the surface. The displayed position corresponds to the lander.
44.1214° N · 19.5117° W
Locate on the map ↑Chang’e 4 / Yutu 2
Far side
First soft landing on the far side, with the Yutu 2 rover. The point corresponds to the lander.
45.4561° S · 177.5885° E
Locate on the map ↑Chang’e 5
Ocean of Storms
Mission to collect lunar samples and return them to Earth.
43.0576° N · 51.9161° W
Locate on the map ↑Chandrayaan-3
High southern latitudes
The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover studied the surface in the southern hemisphere. The site is not at the geographic South Pole.
69.3741° S · 32.3200° E
Locate on the map ↑SLIM
Near side
Japanese demonstration of precision lunar landing. The UTC date is 19 January; in Japan, it is already 20 January.
13.3160° S · 25.2510° E
Locate on the map ↑Chang’e 6
Far side
First mission to return samples from the far side. Landing took place on 1 June UTC, on 2 June in China.
41.6385° S · 153.9852° W
Locate on the map ↑Observe, land, return.
An orbiter maps the Moon from space. A lander studies its surroundings on the surface; a rover moves around. A sample-return mission then enables analysis in laboratories on Earth.
LRO, which provides the mosaics for these maps, is an orbiter: it therefore has no landing site to plot here.
Discover LRO at NASA ↗Why is Apollo 13 missing?
Apollo 13 did not land: its accident led to the surface exploration objective being abandoned and the crew being returned to Earth. The six Apollo sites on this map belong to missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Read the history of exploration ↗Positions and sources you can verify.
Apollo module positions come from the NASA NSSDCA catalogue, in the lunar Mean Earth/Polar Axis DE421 reference frame. Other sites follow the NSSDCA table of spacecraft on the Moon. The displayed precision does not make the mosaic accurate enough for surveying.
Historical sources are listed on each fact sheet: NASA, ISRO, JAXA and a scientific paper on Chang’e 6. Sources accessed on 18 October 2026. To continue beyond this selection: NASA lunar mission timeline.
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