A moon landing is the arrival of an intact manned or unmanned spacecraft on the surface of a planet's natural satellite. The concept has been a goal of mankind since it was first appreciated that the Moon is Earth's closest large celestial body. One of the clearest early examples of the concept in fiction was Jules Verne's novel From the Earth to the Moon, written in 1865. Since the Soviet Union first succeeded in implementing the concept in 1966, this term referred to eighteen spacecraft landings on the Moon through 1976. Nine of these missions returned to Earth bearing samples of moon rocks.



The first manned moon landing on Earth's Moon was the United States' Apollo 11 mission, commanded by Neil Armstrong accompanied by Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. Armstrong landed the lunar module Eagle on the surface of the Moon at 4:17:42 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, July 20, 1969. They spent a day on the surface of the Moon and then returned to Earth. A total of six such manned moon landings were carried out between 1969 and 1972. The Soviet Union later achieved sample returns via the unmanned moon landings Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24. Since this was during the time of the Cold War, the contest to be the first on the Moon was one of the most visible facets of the space race.




Progress in space exploration has since broadened the phrase to include other moons in the solar system as well. The Huygens probe of the Cassini mission to Saturn performed a successful unmanned moon landing on Titan in 2005. Similarly, the Soviet probe Phobos 2 came within 120 miles of performing a unmanned moon landing on Mars' moon Phobos in 1989 before radio contact with that lander was suddenly lost. There is widespread interest in performing a future moon landing on Jupiter's moon Europa to drill down and explore the liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface.



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Apollo Moon Landing hoax accusations are claims that some or all elements of the Apollo Moon landings were faked by NASA and possibly members of other involved organizations. Some groups and individuals have advanced alternate historical narratives which tend, to varying degrees, to include the following common elements:



> The Apollo Astronauts did not land on the Moon;
> NASA and possibly others intentionally deceived the public into believing the landing(s) did occur by manufacturing, destroying, or tampering with evidence, including photos, telemetry tapes, transmissions, and rock samples;
> NASA and possibly others continue to actively participate in the conspiracy to this day.




Many commentators have published detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims. According to a 1999 poll conducted by the The Gallup Organization, what Gallup termed an "overwhelming majority" of the US public, some 89 percent, did not believe the landing was faked, while 6 percent did, while 5 percent were undecided.