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EchoNaut

The list

Every spot on the Moon

Since the 1960s, NASA has sent robots, rockets and astronauts to the Moon. Lots of what they carried never came home. Landers became launch pads, some spacecraft crashed on purpose, and science instruments are still sitting right where they stopped. Ready to go and find them?

Here are the same 10 places and 4 missions as on the 3D globe. Curious about the other one? Visit the Mars list.

  1. Oceanus Procellarum

    3.02° S, 23.42° W

    The spot where the Apollo 12 astronauts landed in 1969, about 180 metres from the robot lander Surveyor 3, which had been there since 1967.

    Latin for “Ocean of Storms”. A huge, dark plain on the Moon. Early astronomers thought dark areas like this were oceans, but they are plains of old volcanic rock.

  2. Tranquility Base, Mare Tranquillitatis

    0.67° N, 23.47° E

    The place where Apollo 11 landed. Its official Latin name is Statio Tranquillitatis. “Statio” is the word used on maps for a spacecraft landing site.

  3. Hadley–Apennine

    26.13° N, 3.63° E

    Apollo 15’s landing area, beside Hadley Rille, a long, winding channel, and the Apennine mountains, which are named after the Apennines on Earth. Mons Hadley is named after John Hadley, a British instrument maker.

  4. Near Flamsteed crater, Oceanus Procellarum

    2.47° S, 43.34° W

    A small crater on the Moon, about 19 km wide, named after John Flamsteed, a British astronomer who lived from 1646 to 1719.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  5. Southwest Mare Tranquillitatis

    1.46° N, 23.19° E

    Latin for “Sea of Tranquility”. A wide, dark, smooth plain on the Moon. Early astronomers thought it was a sea, but it is made of old volcanic rock.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  6. Sinus Medii

    0.47° N, 1.43° W

    Latin for “Bay of the Center”. A small, smooth plain close to the middle of the Moon’s face as we see it from Earth.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  7. North of Tycho crater

    40.98° S, 11.51° W

    A crater on the Moon, about 86 km wide, named after Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer who lived from 1546 to 1601.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  8. Fra Mauro highlands

    3.64° S, 17.48° W

    A crater on the Moon, about 97 km wide, named after Fra Mauro, an Italian geographer who died in 1459. Apollo 14 landed in the Fra Mauro highlands.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  9. Descartes Highlands

    8.98° S, 15.50° E

    Hilly highlands on the Moon where Apollo 16 landed. The nearby Descartes crater is named after René Descartes, a French mathematician and philosopher (1596–1650).

    More things left behind by the missions listed here

  10. Taurus–Littrow valley

    20.19° N, 30.76° E

    The valley where Apollo 17 landed, named by its astronauts. It joins the Taurus Mountains, named after Earth’s Taurus Mountains, and Littrow crater, named after astronomer Johann von Littrow.

    More things left behind by the missions listed here