Overview
- On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the Moon, and their two‑and‑a‑half hour moonwalk returned about 22 kilograms of samples and installed seismic and laser instruments.
- The Apollo Guidance Computer used on that mission ran on 0.043 MHz with 2 KB of RAM and about 20 KB of ROM, a design that was mission‑specific and reliable despite having far less raw power than modern phones.
- Artemis II completed the first crewed lunar flyby in April 2026, validating human operations around the Moon and renewing plans to return people to the surface under the Artemis program.
- NASA’s March 2026 Moon Base plan lays out three phases starting with deliveries in 2026, infrastructure build from 2029 to 2032, and consolidation after 2032, with a reported budget of about US$20 billion and named private partners for landers and logistics.
- Schedule and technical risks, especially delays to SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, plus competition from other nations, are the main constraints that could push back the timetable for crewed landings and construction of a sustained lunar facility.