The big one

To many people, the Moon mission – the one that springs instantly to mind – was Apollo 11 in July 1969. This put the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, onto the lunar surface, and then returned them safely to Earth – a monumental feat by the United States that was repeated five more times over the next few years. From a technical point of view, the Apollo missions were extremely complex, involving both a regular space capsule called the Command Module, which remained in lunar orbit with another crew member on board, and a specially designed Lunar Module to descend to the surface.