Parting Moon Shots from NASA's GRAIL Mission

On Aug. 23, 1966, NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 snapped the first photo of Earth as seen from lunar orbit.

Share this animation on social media to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night!

The six Apollo lunar landing sites are all relatively near the equator on the side of the Moon that faces the Earth. 

Astronauts: James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart Stresses the testing of the Lunar Module, the spacecraft that will land men on the Moon. Featured are sequences of launch, ...

The rising Earth above the lunar horizon as seen from the Apollo 8 spacecraft.

On July 16, 1969, the huge, 363-feet tall Saturn V rocket launches on the Apollo 11 mission from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, at 9:32 a.m. EDT.

Photomosaic of lunar panorama near the Tycho crater taken by Surveyor 7. The hills on the center horizon are about eight miles away from the spacecraft.

Lunar Orbiter 4 image of the Moon centered on the Mare Orientale Basin. The outermost circle of the "bull's eye" is the Cordillera Mountain scarp, almost 900 kilometers in diameter.

Lunar Orbiter 1 image of Taruntius crater on the Moon.

A simple visualization of Moon orbiting Earth in a view from the north ecliptic pole.

Apollo 8 Launch

This animation shows the last three orbits of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with views of the impact site. 

Katherine Johnson and other "Human Computers" played an integral role in the early days of America's space program.

Video of the moon taken by the NASA GRAIL mission's MoonKam camera aboard the Ebb spacecraft on Dec. 14, 2012

The scenes in the video are so dramatic that you may find yourself reaching out to pick up a rock and becoming restless to walk among the lunar peaks.

Apollo 12 astronauts relax during a flight rehearsal in the Apollo mission simulator.

Astronaut John Young, who walked on the Moon during Apollo 16 and commanded the first space shuttle mission, has passed away at the age of 87.

This photograph of astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, was taken inside the Lunar Module (LM) while the LM rested on the lunar surface.

Ranger 8 image of the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquillity) area of the Moon taken from 511 km about 4 minutes before surface impact.

LRO: Apollo 17 Landing Site Lithograph

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle, in a landing configuration was photographed in lunar orbit from the Command and Service Module Columbia.

This movie shows the variations in the lunar gravity field as measured by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) during the primary mapping mission from March to May 2012.

A close-up view of a commemorative plaque left on the Moon at the Hadley-Apennine landing site in memory of 14 NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts.

Lunar orbiter from Langley Research Lunar Orbiter Program.

In the early morning hours of April 15, 2014, the Moon enters the Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse.