Apollo 11
1969
The first crewed Moon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21.5 hours on the surface while Collins orbited above in the command module.
Specs
Launched 16 Jul 1969; 3 days to the Moon (385,000 km); Lunar Module 'Eagle' ~15 t; 21.5 kg of rocks returned; EVA 2 h 31 min.
Why it matters
Apollo returned 382 kg of Moon rock in total - dated, studied, and verified by scientists worldwide. Retroreflectors left on the surface are still used today to measure the Earth-Moon distance to millimetre precision (see /debunk claim:moon-close).