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Between 1968 and 1972 there were 12 crewed Apollo missions, the first was Apollo 1 (originally named AS-204) which had been planned to launch on February 21, 1967, however a fire during a test run tragically killed the crew and destroyed the module. Twenty months later, the Apollo 7 became the first successful mission of the program, successfully entering low-earth orbit (LEO) during a mission that lasted just over ten days and twenty hours.

Moon landings

Apollo 11 was the first mission to successfully land man on the moon, launching on July 16 1969, at 13:32GMT and landing back on Earth, in the Pacific Ocean, eight days and three hours later. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969. NASA successfully sent another five manned missions to the moon's surface, as well as one unsuccessful mission (Apollo 13), which was forced to return after an oxygen tank exploded en-route to the moon.

The future

Since the Apollo Program finished in 1972, no human has set foot on the moon's surface again, although the US government has called for NASA to return by 2024. Since 1972, NASA has been continuously active in other areas of space technology and exploration, working with other international aerospace organizations on projects such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Program. There are also future plans for private companies, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, to begin private ventures into space, and open the way for a new age of 'space tourism'.