American Lunar Exploration

Pioneer 4

Mar 3, 1959

Pioneer 4 was a spacecraft established as part of the Pioneer Program. As you can tell, it is cone shaped and consisted of fiberglass shell. It is the first U.S. probe to endure through Earth's gravity.

Ranger 1

Aug 23, 1961

Ranger 1 is a spacecraft in the Ranger Program. It's mission was to examine the availability of obtaining the fuctions and materials needed for proposing missions into space. It was also used to study particles in nature and aspects of space.

Surveyor 1

May 30, 1966

This was the first lunar soft lander in the U.S. It was used to provide information about lunar surfaces that would soon benefit the landing of Apollo. It occured 4 months after the Soviets landed Luna 9 probe.

Lunar Orbiter 1

Aug 10, 1966

This robotic spacecraft was made to take pictures of smooth areas of surface in space. It was used to find a safe place for landing on the moon. It was also there to collect selenodetic.

Explorer 35 (IMP-E)

Jul 19, 1967

It was a spin-stablized spacecraft for interplanetary studies. It was able to used plasma magnetic field, energetic particles, and solar xrays. The spin was 90 degrees with the ecliptic plane.

Surveyor 7

Jan 7, 1968

It is the seventh and last lunar lander. It took a total of 21, 091 pictures for the Earth. It's major contractors was Hudges Aircraft.

Apollo 11

Jul 16, 1969

Landed the first human on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Edwin Aldrin was also landed on the moon. This was an immense accomplishment for the U.S.

Apollo 15

Jul 26, 1971

This was the ninth mission. The commander was David Scott. He and his crew spent 3 days on the moon and almost 20 hours outside the spacecraft.

Apollo 17

Dec 7, 1972

This was the 11th and last mission for the space program. It is the 6th Apollo landing and the first night launch for the US. It was a final manned launch of a Saturn V rocket.

Explorer 49 (RAE-B)

Jun 10, 1973

It was launched for longwave radio astronomy research. It was the second pair of Radio Astronomy. It was operated by NASA.

Clementine

Jan 25, 1994

It is called the Deep Sapce Program Science Experiment. It called on board 7 experiments. It is a satellite of the moon.

AsiaSat 3/HGS-1

Dec 24, 1997

It is also known was the HGS-1. It's major contractors are Hudges and ILS. It is use for communcation wise missions.

Lunar Prospector

Jan 7, 1998

This was the third of NASA's. Date from the missions was used for construction of a map of the surface of the moon. Several was published in the journal science.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Jun 17, 2009

This changed the view of the moon forever. Brought it into sharper focus for scientist. Delievered more then 200 data base information.

LCROSS

Jun 17, 2009

It was made to search for water on the moon. It was sent at a high speed to crach and cause a crator in the moons surface. This impact release materials that were known was hydrated minearals.

Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)

Sep 10, 2011

It is schedule to launch this year. Science will use the gravity field to dicover more about the moon surface. It will be launch on a single vehicle.