People Who Have Walked on the Moon

Summary and significance

The six successful crewed lunar landing missions (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) demonstrated new capabilities in spacecraft design, human endurance in deep-space operations, and in situ scientific investigation. The surface excursions—known as extravehicular activities (EVAs)—yielded important geological observations and returned substantial rock and soil samples that transformed scientific understanding of the Moon's origin and history. The first person to step onto the surface became a global symbol of that era, and the last to leave remains, to date, the most recent human to have stood on another world.

List of lunar surface visitors

1. Neil Armstrong — Apollo 11 (July 1969): first human to step onto the lunar surface.
2. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin — Apollo 11 (July 1969): second person to walk on the Moon.
3. Pete Conrad — Apollo 12 (November 1969).
4. Alan Bean — Apollo 12 (November 1969).
5. Alan Shepard — Apollo 14 (February 1971).
6. Edgar Mitchell — Apollo 14 (February 1971).
7. David Scott — Apollo 15 (July 1971).
8. James Irwin — Apollo 15 (July 1971).
9. John Young — Apollo 16 (April 1972).
10. Charles Duke — Apollo 16 (April 1972): the youngest person to have walked on the Moon.
11. Eugene (Gene) Cernan — Apollo 17 (December 1972): the last person, so far, to walk on the lunar surface.
12. Harrison Schmitt — Apollo 17 (December 1972): the first professional scientist (geologist) to walk on the Moon.

Notable facts and distinctions

• Six Apollo missions placed humans on the Moon; each mission contributed different scientific instruments and site sampling strategies.
• All twelve lunar walkers were United States citizens and men; future missions aim to broaden representation among lunar visitors.
• Surface work included photography, instrument deployment, sample collection and geological fieldwork that returned several hundred kilograms of material to Earth.
• Some astronauts became well-known public figures; photos, radio transmissions and brief spoken messages from the surface remain part of the cultural record.

Work done by these crews laid the foundation for later plans to return humans to the Moon, including programs that explicitly aim to land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface. The Apollo-era moonwalkers continue to be central figures in histories of space exploration and in discussions about the future of human activity beyond Earth.

For contemporary background on the Moon and the Apollo missions, see entries on the Moon, the life and career of Neil Armstrong, and the broader Apollo program.