Six crews walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. Drag the 3D globe below and click a yellow marker - or pick a mission from the dropdown - to see the real landing coordinates, date, and crew for that site.
Coordinates in the facts panel come from NASA LRO-based lunar site tables (Mean Earth/Polar Axis frame) - the same reference frame used for modern lunar mapping.
Apollo Landing Sites on the Moon 3D Explorer
Last reviewed: 2026-08-07 | Authored by the FreeToolOnline teamBetween 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions put twelve astronauts on the Moon's surface at six different sites. This explorer plots every site at its real coordinates on a 3D Moon - click a marker or pick a mission from the dropdown to see the landing date, crew, and location for that flight.
Key Features
- Six real landing sites: Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, each plotted at its published selenographic coordinates.
- Click-to-explore markers: click any yellow pin on the 3D Moon, or use the dropdown, to load that mission's facts.
- Real published figures: coordinates, landing dates, and crew names sourced from NASA LRO-based lunar site tables and NASA mission history.
- Educational approximation: the Moon is a smooth procedural sphere, not a rendered terrain map, and marker size is enlarged for visibility - it is not a physical simulation.
- No accounts needed: runs fully in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Why Six Different Sites
NASA spread the six crewed landings across different types of lunar terrain to broaden the geologic sampling and to test the Lunar Module and later the Lunar Roving Vehicle in varied settings. Apollo 11 landed on a flat mare (lava plain) for safety on the first attempt; Apollo 15 through 17 targeted highland and mountain-edge sites for more scientifically interesting rock samples once the landing technique was proven.
The Six Missions
| Mission | Site | Landing date | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 11 | Mare Tranquillitatis | 1969-07-20 | 0.674N 23.473E |
| Apollo 12 | Oceanus Procellarum | 1969-11-19 | 3.013S 23.422W |
| Apollo 14 | Fra Mauro | 1971-02-05 | 3.646S 17.472W |
| Apollo 15 | Hadley-Apennine | 1971-07-30 | 26.132N 3.633E |
| Apollo 16 | Descartes | 1972-04-20 | 8.973S 15.501E |
| Apollo 17 | Taurus-Littrow | 1972-12-11 | 20.191N 30.772E |
Privacy + How It Runs
The Apollo Landing Sites 3D Explorer runs entirely in your browser using WebGL and the vendored three.js engine. No data is sent to any server. The Moon and its markers are generated in code (procedural geometry), and all calculations happen on your device. The facts panel displays real coordinates, dates, and crew names from NASA's published mission records.
The Space 3D collection also includes Apollo Free-Return Trajectory 3D (the Apollo 13 emergency flight path, a distinct reader task from this page's six landing locations) and Moon Libration 3D (how the Moon's slight wobble reveals a bit more than half its surface over time).
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate are the landing site coordinates?
The coordinates come from NASA's LRO-based lunar site tables in the Mean Earth/Polar Axis reference frame, refined using imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. They are accurate to within a few meters - far more precise than the estimates available at the time of each mission.
Why did NASA choose different sites for each mission?
Early missions targeted flat, low-risk mare (lava plain) terrain to prove the landing technique safely. Once that was proven, later missions - Apollo 15, 16, and 17 - targeted highland and mountain-edge sites that offered more scientifically valuable rock samples, at the cost of a harder landing approach.
Is this a physics simulation of the actual landings?
No. This is an educational approximation that plots the real, published landing coordinates on a smooth procedural Moon model. It does not simulate the descent trajectory, engine burns, or terrain the astronauts actually saw - the Moon surface here is a simple sphere, not a rendered elevation map.
Which Apollo mission traveled farthest from the others?
Apollo 12's site in Oceanus Procellarum sits roughly on the opposite side of the visible near side from Apollo 17's Taurus-Littrow site, more than 3,000 kilometers apart in longitude. Use the dropdown to jump between missions and see the spread for yourself.
Were there other planned landing sites that never happened?
Yes. Apollo 18, 19, and 20 were cancelled in 1970 due to budget cuts, along with their planned sites. Apollo 13's planned landing at Fra Mauro was aborted after an oxygen tank failure en route; Apollo 14 later landed at that same site successfully in 1971.
Why is the Moon model smooth instead of showing craters?
The scene favors a fast-loading procedural sphere so the page renders instantly in any browser. The value of this page is the accurate site locations and mission facts, not a textured terrain - see the FAQ note in the facts panel for the same disclosure.