Orbiter photos show the lunar modules from the first 2 moon landings more than 50 years later
Recent photos taken by the Indian Space Research Organization’s orbiter, known as Chandrayaan 2, make it clear Apollo 11 and the Apollo 12 landing sites more than 50 years later.
The photos were taken by the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter in April 2021 and were re-shared on Curiosity’s X page — which publishes posts about space exploration — on Wednesday.
“Apollo 11 and 12 images taken by India’s lunar orbiter. We disapprove of moon landing deniers,” Curiosity wrote on X, along with overhead photos showing the landing vehicles on the surface of the moon.
Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, making Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first people to walk on its surface.
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The latest photos taken by the Indian Space Research Organization’s lunar orbiter, known as Chandrayaan 2, clearly show the landing sites of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 more than 50 years later. (Indian Space Research Organization)
Astronaut Michael Collins, the third man on the Apollo 11 mission, remained in orbit while Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the moon.
The lunar module, known as the Eagle, was left in lunar orbit after it collided with the command module Collins was in the next day and the Eagle eventually landed back on the lunar surface.
Apollo 12 was NASA’s second manned mission to land on the Moon on November 19, 1969, with Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on its surface.
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin places a suite of scientific experiments on the lunar surface. In the background is the lunar module, as well as the flag of the United States. (Photo: Neil Armstrong/NASA/Getty Images) (Neil Armstrong/NASA/Getty Images)
The Apollo missions lasted until December 1972, when the program was terminated and astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon.
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The Chandrayaan-2 mission was launched on July 22, 2019, exactly 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission and two years before it captured the lunar lander images of 1969.
Next to NASA’s Apollo 12 lunar module ‘Intrepid’, US astronaut Alan Bean unloads equipment from the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on the lunar surface, November 19, 1969. (NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images)
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India also launched Chandrayaan-3 last year, becoming the first mission to successfully land on the Moon’s south pole.
