Parting Moon Shots from NASA's GRAIL Mission

At the end of the last Apollo 15 moon walk, Commander David Scott (pictured above) performed a live demonstration for the television cameras.

In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space.

A view of the Apollo 11 lunar module "Eagle" as it returned from the surface of the Moon to dock with the command module "Columbia".

View of a lightning bolt during the launch of Apollo 12

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 camera B image of the Moon about 5 seconds before impact.

NASA experts discuss astronaut training, tools for the Artemis mission, and the importance of returning to the Moon.

This graphic highlights locations on the moon NASA considers "lunar heritage sites" and the path NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft will take on their final flight.

Lunar Orbiter 1 image of Taruntius crater on the Moon.

Mosaic of images taken by the robotic lunar lander Surveyor 7

Featured are the standup EVA, the three traverses of the lunar surface, film taken from the Lunar Rover, hammer and feather test of Galileo's theory on falling objects in gravity fields, Worden's E...

Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt with the U.S. flag and the Earth in the sky. 

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.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) acquired a high resolution image of the Apollo 11 landing site.

Three images of Tycho crater and its central peak, located at 43 S, 11 W, on the Moon.

Depicts the dramatic voyage of Apollo 13. The most serious accident to occur in space changed the mission from a routine lunar landing to a desperate fight for crew survival.

Oblique view of Copernicus crater from Lunar Orbiter 

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.

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

Color an outline of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft as it orbits the Moon. 

The first image taken by the Ranger 8 camera B on 20 February 1965 shows the 164 km diameter Ptolemaeus crater, top center, and below it Alphonsus crater (diameter 108 km).

Global map of crustal thickness of the moon derived from gravity data obtained by NASA's GRAIL spacecraft.

The near side of Earth's Moon, as seen based on data from cameras aboard NASA's robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

A complete slideshow overview of NASA's Apollo lunar exploration program.  Last updated: December 2020

Deep in the craters of the Moon's south pole lurk permanently shadowed regions: areas that have not seen sunlight in over two billion years.