's only known natural satellite
,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne
that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term (Morais et al, 2002). These are quasi-satellite
s and not true moons. For more information, see Other moons of Earth. and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System
.
1178 Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon's distance from the Earth (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.
1959 Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
1959 The Soviet probe ''Luna 2'' crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.
1959 The world sees the far side of the Moon for the first time.
1961 Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
1962 Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.
1962 Ranger program: Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1962 NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
1964 Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1965 Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the ''Mare Tranquillitatis'' region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. ''Mare Tranquillitatis'' or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.