The Apollo missions took man to the moon, but so far no missions are planned to take him back.
40th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing
On July 20, 1969, earthlings reached the moon. Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin stepped down from the Eagle spacecraft and explored the lunar surface. Monday, July 20, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the landing and moonwalk.
In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave a speech that succinctly outlined his goal for humans in space: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." Although Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, future administrations supported NASA to continue on in its goal, which was reached on time.
After the Apollo program ceased, so did human exploration of the solar system. While shuttle flights and the International Space Station are the current activities involving human spaceflight, these craft remain within Earth's thermosphere.
There are no immediate plans to return humans to the moon, nor is there any firm plan in place to take humans to Mars. Unmanned spacecraft have been the cheaper, safer alternative taken in the intervening decades, with NASA's first lunar mission in more than a decade happening this year, 2009. LCROSS, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission, will crash a probe into the surface later this year.
The Night Sky on July 20, 1969, and July 20, 2009
The Eagle landed on the lunar surface at 4:17 pm EDT on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stayed inside for a few hours, preparing for their space walk. Neil Armstrong emerged from the craft and first stepped foot on the lunar soil at 10:56 pm EDT. (Those east of the Atlantic may recall the landing occurring on July 21.) For most Americans, the moon, a bit less than half full, was setting in the west between Jupiter and Spica. Mars lay within the claws of Scorpius.
Observers who would like to gaze at the moon on July 20, 2009, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing must rise early in the morning. This year on July 20 the moon is just a day before new phase, which means it will be rising about two hours before the sun. Its sliver of a crescent will only be approximately four percent lit. The moon will form a triangle with the bright stars Capella and Aldebaran, and Mars will once again be in the picture, this time lying between the Hyades and Pleiades clusters. (The Hyades cluster is the V-shape of Taurus's head.) Venus, however, will be the brightest object near the moon, dazzling at magnitude -4.
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