List of lunar astronauts
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Twenty-four astronauts have been on or near the Moon. Twelve of these landed on the Moon and actually walked on its surface.
All are men from the United States of America who traveled to the Moon as part of NASA's Apollo program during the period from December 1968 to December 1972.
Apart from these 24 people, no human being has ever left Earth orbit (with a height of a few hundred km); they have thus gone farther from the Earth than anyone else has ever gone (see "where no man has gone before").
There were no in-flight fatalities in the Apollo program.
People who have walked on the Moon
As of 2005, only the following twelve people have walked on the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the Moon since 1972.
- Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11 - July, 1969
- Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - Apollo 11 - July, 1969
- Charles "Pete" Conrad - Apollo 12 - November, 1969 (may have been scheduled to land again on Apollo 20)
- Alan Bean - Apollo 12 - November, 1969
- Alan Shepard - Apollo 14 - February, 1971
- Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14 - February, 1971
- David Scott - Apollo 15 - July, 1971
- James Irwin - Apollo 15 - July, 1971
- John Young - Apollo 16 - April, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
- Charles Duke - Apollo 16 - April, 1972
- Eugene Cernan - Apollo 17 - December, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
- Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17 - December, 1972
People who have encountered the Moon closely without landing
On each of the (first listed) missions above one astronaut orbited the Moon while the other two landed. In addition each of the Apollo 8, Apollo 10 and Apollo 13 missions had a three man crew and closely encountered the Moon (entering orbit in the case of the former two missions, while Apollo 13 only passed around it). Thus 12 more people have been close to the Moon:
- Frank Borman - Apollo 8
- Jim Lovell - Apollo 8, Apollo 13
- Bill Anders - Apollo 8
- Tom Stafford - Apollo 10
- Michael Collins - Apollo 11
- Dick Gordon - Apollo 12 (had been scheduled to land on Apollo 18)
- Jack Swigert - Apollo 13
- Fred Haise - Apollo 13 (had been scheduled to land on Apollo 19)
- Stuart Roosa - Apollo 14 (may have been scheduled to land on Apollo 20)
- Al Worden - Apollo 15
- Ken Mattingly - Apollo 16
- Ronald Evans - Apollo 17
Lovell, Young and Cernan are the only three astronauts to serve on two lunar missions. Of these three, only Lovell did not walk on the lunar surface. Lovell and Haise would have walked on the Moon, but were prevented from doing so by the malfunction on Apollo 13 that resulted in the mission being aborted.
People who would or might have been lunar astronauts
- Joe Engle - lunar module pilot on Apollo 17, but was replaced by Schmitt when Apollo 18 was cancelled (Schmitt was a scientist-astronaut, so NASA still wanted him to go to the Moon)
- Vance Brand - command module pilot on Apollo 18, but mission was cancelled
- Bill Pogue - command module pilot on Apollo 19, but mission was cancelled
- Gerald Carr - lunar module pilot on Apollo 19, but mission was cancelled
- Paul Weitz - possible lunar module pilot on Apollo 20, but mission was cancelled
- Jack Lousma - possible lunar module or command module pilot on Apollo 20, but mission was cancelled
- Don Lind - possible lunar module pilot on Apollo 20, but mission was cancelledsk:Zoznam lunárnych astronautov