A daguerreotype image of the moon made on March 26, 1840, one of the first-ever astrophotographs, attributed to John W. Draper, photographed from the rooftop observatory at New York University #

The Pioneer 1 moon probe rocket leaves its launchpad on October 11, 1958, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Pioneer 1, the first mission operated by the newly established NASA group, failed to reach orbit, one of many failures in early lunar explorations. #

Luna 2 was the first man-made object to successfully reach another world. The probe, launched by the Soviet Union on September 12, 1959, sped toward the moon on a direct course, designed as an impactor, crashing into the lunar surface less than two days after launch, at a speed of more than 6,500 mph (10,460 kph). At right is a copy of the Soviet "pennant" sent aboard the Luna 2 probe to the moon. Stainless steel badges embossed with the Cyrillic letters СССР ("USSR"), surrounded an explosive charge, were meant to scatter the evidence of a Soviet presence across the landing site. It is estimated that the high speed of impact of Luna 2 likely vaporized the pennants, though. #

The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft returned the first views ever of the far side of the moon. This first image was taken on October 7, 1959, at a distance of 63,500 km, after Luna 3 had passed the moon and looked back at the sunlit far side. Twenty-nine photographs were taken, covering 70 percent of the far side. #

The first image of the moon taken by a U.S. spacecraft. Ranger 7 took this image on July 31, 1964, about 17 minutes before impacting the lunar surface. The large crater at center right is the 108-km-in-diameter Alphonsus. Above it is Ptolemaeus, and below it is Arzachel. The Ranger 7 impact site is off the frame, to the left of the upper left corner. #

Jay Bodnar watches as the first televised pictures of the moon's surface are beamed back to Earth in detail on March 24, 1965. The Ranger 9 unmanned probe showed Americans an unprecedented view of the surface, and Jay wore his space helmet in celebration of the live event. #

The moon's surface viewed by the Soviet moon probe Luna 9, the first spacecraft to successfully execute a soft landing on the Moon, on February 4, 1966. The picture was released by the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in Great Britain, which picked up Luna 9's signals. #

An image of the shadow of NASA's Surveyor 1 against the lunar surface in the late lunar afternoon, with the horizon at the upper right. Surveyor 1, the first of the Surveyor missions to make a successful soft landing, proved the spacecraft design and landing technique. In addition to transmitting more than 11,000 pictures, it sent information on the bearing strength of the lunar soil, the radar reflectivity, and temperature. Surveyor 1 was launched on May 30, 1966, and landed on June 2, 1966. #

Russia's Zond 5, being recovered from the Indian Ocean, on September 21, 1968. Zond 5 was carrying an extensive biological payload, including two Russian steppe tortoises. It was the first successful mission to circle the moon and return to Earth, and the first to carry terrestrial life as far as the moon and back. The tortoises survived landing in the Indian Ocean and were returned to Moscow. #

The Earth is seen off the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken by the astronaut Bill Anders from the Apollo 8 spacecraft on December 24, 1968. On Earth, 240,000 miles away, the sunset terminator crosses Africa. The South Pole is in the white area near the bottom end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds. As the crew was in the middle of their fourth lunar orbit, Anders looked out of window 5 and exclaimed "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!" He and Commander Frank Borman shot several images of the event, with this one becoming the most famous, known as Earthrise. #

In November 1969, the astronauts of Apollo 12 visited the unmanned Surveyor III lunar lander, which had set down on the moon more than two years earlier, on April 20, 1967. The Apollo landing craft, the Intrepid, sits on the horizon. #

The Soviet Luna 16 probe lands in a field in Kazakhstan after its voyage to the moon, on September 26, 1970. Luna 16 was the first robotic probe to land on the moon, then successfully return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. #

A model of the Soviet lunar rover Lunokhod 1, photographed in the museum of astronautics in Moscow, Russia, on November 10, 2018. Lunokhod 1 was one of two Soviet rovers to drive across the surface of the moon, equipped with cameras and instruments to test the soil. Lunokhod 1 traveled some 10.5 kilometers over the course of 321 Earth days. #

In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, China's first moon orbiter, Chang'e 1, lifts off from the launchpad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province, on October 24, 2007. #

A high-definition image of Earth taken by Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter in November 2007. Kaguya was the first probe to transmit high-definition color video from lunar orbit. #

A photograph of the giant screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center shows a photo of the Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit" lunar rover, taken on the lunar surface by the camera on the Chang'e 3 probe during the mutual-photograph process, in Beijing, China, on December 15, 2013. #