Apollo Moon Landing Sites Captured on LRO Camera

Images of five of the six Apollo landing sites were captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) within weeks of reaching the moon. The team hopes to see its first images of the Apollo 12 landing site next month.

LRO is currently orbiting the moon on an elliptical path that takes it some 30 km over the moon's south pole and 200 km over the north pole, but later this year it will enter a circular orbit at an altitude of about 50 km. (Illustration: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio)

The lunar module Eagle, which was used to carry Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin down to the lunar surface on 20 July 1969 is clearly seen in the image on the left. When LRO settles into its final orbit later this year, it will deliver images that are at least twice as sharp as this one.

The lunar module Falcon from the Apollo 15 mission is visible in the image on the right. Apollo 15 astronauts, who reached the moon on 30 July 1971, were the first to use a lunar rover to explore the surface. Click here to see their trek superimposed on a map of London. (Image: NASA/GSFC/ASU)

This image of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in front of the lunar module Eagle provides a sense of scale to interpret the LRO images taken from orbit. The lunar module is about 4 metres wide. (Image: NASA/Neil Armstrong)

Good lighting conditions made the 1971 Apollo 14 site particularly easy to spot, says Mark Robinson, who heads up the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team at Arizona State University in Tempe.

Well-worn tracks can be seen in the soil to the left of the lunar module Antares (arrow).
Click here to see the Apollo 14 crew's trek superimposed on a map of London. (Image: NASA/GSFC/ASU)

A footpath connects the Apollo 14 landing site to an experiments package that the crew members set up. The experiments station, which transmitted data back to Earth for years after the mission, boasts a reflector that can be used for laser-ranging measurements of the Earth-moon distance (see Mirrors on the moon) and a range of experiments used to study the lunar environment and interior. (Image: NASA/GSFC/ASU)

Apollo 16's Orion lunar module (left) landed in the heavily-cratered lunar highlands on 21 April 1972.

Apollo 17's lunar module, Challenger (right), landed on the moon on 11 December 1972. Apollo 17 was the last mission to land on the moon and the first to boast a trained geologist – Harrison Schmitt. Schmitt and mission commander Eugene Cernan set records for the distance covered on the surface – 30 km – and the amount of samples collected – 110 kg – during their mission. (Image: NASA/GSFC/ASU)