Credit: ESA/NASA

Earth has one natural satellite (a space or celestial body that orbits another planet) called “Moon”.

The Moon lacks an atmosphere or weather and is very hot during the day (107 degrees Celsius) but very cold at night (-153 degrees Celsius).

The Moon it is a dusty ball of rock and its surface has mountains, huge craters from comets and asteroids that have collided with the surface over time and flat planes called ‘seas’ made of hardened lava.

Moon is the fifth largest moon in the Solar System and roughly a quarter of the size of Earth.

In total, 14 people, as part of the Apollo program, have walked on the Moon: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt.

Apollo 11, was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. It was made of 3 parts:

1. The command module: were the 3 astronauts (Commander Neil Armstrong, pilot Buzz Aldrin, pilot Michael Collins) worked and slept.
2. The service module: containing the power and life support systems.
3. The lunar module “The Eagle”: that landed on the moon.

Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969. They spent about 2 hours and collected lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module “Columbia” alone in lunar orbit while the other 2 Astronauts were on the Moon’s surface.

Credit: NASA