Sand and Stars

With the Moon waxing the advancing line of lunar sunrise exposes one site after another beginning with Apollo 17 in the Moon’s eastern hemisphere and finishing with Apollos 12 and 14 in the western. All of the sites are near the equator and all of the landings took place fairly soon after local sunrise, when the lunar surface was cool and the shadows threw the terrain into high relief, making navigation easier.

Apollo 11

  • Landing site: Mare Tranquillitatis
  • Latitude 0°41’15” N  Longitude 23°26’18” E
  • Lunar Landing: 20 July 1969 at 20:18 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 21 July 1969 at 17:54 GMT
  • Crew: Neil Armstrong; Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin; Michael Collins
  • View: Six days past New

Apollo 12

  • Landing site: Oceanus Procellarum
  • Latitude 3°11’51” S  Longitude 23°23’8″ W
  • Lunar Landing: 19 Nov 1969 at 06:55 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 20 Nov 1969 at 14:26 GMT
  • Crew: Charles (Pete) Conrad; Alan Bean; Richard Gordon
  • View: Ten days after New

Apollo 14

  • Landing site: Fra Mauro
  • Latitude 3°40’24” S  Longitude 17°27’55” W
  • Lunar Landing: 5 February 1971 at 09:17 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 6 February 1971 at 18:48 GMT
  • Crew: Alan Shepard (cdr); Edgar Mitchell; Stuart Roosa
  • View: Ten days after New


Apollo 13 with its crew of James Lovell Jr, John Swigert Jr, Fred Haise Jr, was supposed to land at Fra Mauro before lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module  failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The Fra Mauro site was reassigned to Apollo 14

Apollo 15

  • Landing site: Hadley Rille
  • Latitude 26°06’03” N  Longitude 03°39’10” E
  • Lunar Landing: 30 July 1971 at 22:16 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 2 August 1971 at 17:11 GMT
  • Crew: David Scott; Alfred Worden; James Irwin
  • View: Eight days after New

Apollo 16

  • Landing site: Descartes Highlands
  • Latitude 8°59’29” S  Longitude 15°30’52” E 
  • Lunar Landing: 21 April 1972 at 02:23 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 24 April 1972 at 01:26 GMT
  • Crew: John Young (cdr); Charles Duke Jr; Thomas Mattingly II
  • View Seven Days after New (First Quarter)

Apollo 17

  • Landing site: Taurus–Littrow
  • Latitude 20°9’55” N  Longitude 30°45’57” E
  • Lunar Landing: 7 December 1972 at 04:33 GMT
  • Lunar Lift off: 14 December 1972 at 21:54 GMT
  • Crew: Eugene Cernan; Ronald Evans; Harrison Schmitt
  • View: Six days past New