The Moon File/CASE 08/1969 – 1972

THE HISTORY / THE LANDINGS

Six landings, twelve moonwalkers

Apollo 11 through 17, and what they brought back.

Harrison Schmitt, a geologist, collects samples at Taurus-Littrow during Apollo 17, December 1972.
NASA · Source & image context ↗

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

HISTORY / DOCUMENTED

Six crews landed, drove rovers on the last three, and returned 382 kilograms of samples. Apollo 12 even brought home parts of a robot that had landed two years earlier.

THE EVENTS / THE CLAIM / THE RECORD

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

01

What the six landings did

Longer stays, rovers and a professional geologist.

↗02

The germ on the camera

Did Earth bacteria survive on the Moon?

↗

Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

2 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.

All 111 rated claims ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. Apollo by the Numbers, NASA SP-4029 ↗

    NASA SP-4029, Apollo by the Numbers. Statistical reference for mission dates, durations and crews.

  2. NASA: Apollo 12, the pinpoint mission ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  3. NASA: Apollo 12 astronauts leave quarantine and Surveyor parts enter analysis ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  4. NASA: LRO looks at Apollo 12 and Surveyor 3 landing sites ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  5. NASA: Apollo 15 mission details ↗

    NASA article contains an erroneous radial-distance description. Avoid its distance record list; total rover distance is approximately27.9km.

  6. NASA: Three months until Apollo 15 and expanded science capability ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  7. NASA: Apollo 15 hammer–feather drop ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  8. LPI: Apollo 16 mission samples and the deep drill core ↗

    Research / institutional history. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  9. NASA JPL: Surveyor 3 Camera Returned from the Moon ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  10. Surveyor 3 returned material: surface organics analysis (1972) ↗

    Primary institutional record. Carried from the first edition and re-listed 23 October 2026; cited for the specific point in the text.

  11. NASA: Apollo 18 through 20, the cancelled missions ↗

    Mission-cancellation history, including renumbering; distinguishes planned expeditions from those that flew.

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