Man’s landing on the Moon in 11 numbers

"Lunar adventures" collection

0 – As far as we know, no human being has lived on the Moon yet (although there are a number of teams working on achieving that, much fictional accounts, and many poetic and philosophical imaginations)!

1/4  - Diameter of the Moon compared to that of the Earth, so it would have taken less time to walk around the Moon, not that anyone has tried 

1/6 – Gravity on the Moon is 1/6 of that on Earth, so it requires less work to walk (and you weigh 6 times less too)!

1 – the Moon is the only satellite orbiting the Earth. 

1 – Frances "Poppy" Northcutt is the only woman who worked in NASA’s mission control during all the Apollo missions (she worked on Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13).

2 – the number of astronauts from the Apollo 11 mission that is still living today – of the team of 3, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are still alive and kicking while the Commander Neil Armstrong died in 2012. 

3 – the number of astronauts who have flown both earth orbital and lunar Apollo missions. 

3 – the number of astronauts who have flown to the Moon twice. 

11 – Apollo’s 11 mission was the one that landed men on the Moon, after 10 earlier missions that included orbiting the Moon.  Apollo 8, launched in December 1968, was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return.

12 – from 1969 to 1972, 12 astronauts (all men) walked on the Moon; these are the guys who could look up at the Moon at night say, “Oh, this is the Moon, I’ve been there”

17 – NASA’s Apollo programme spanned 17 missions, and humanity hasn't set foot on the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. 

50 – Man’s first landing on the Moon took place exactly 50 years ago. 

60 – The year 1959 (i.e. exactly 60 years ago) was when the Soviet space probe Luna 3 snapped the first photos of the “dark side” (or “far side”) of the Moon, while astronauts aboard NASA's Apollo 8 in 1968 became the first to gaze upon the moon's far side with their own eyes.  This is because one side of the moon is forever pointed away from Earth – the Moon spins on its axis and loops around our planet at the same rate, once every 27 days or so. 

Finally, the distance the spacecrafts have to travel to reach the Moon from Earth is 238,855 miles (384,400 km).  That is slightly more than the distance that light travels in one second!


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