* The Earth's Moon is a barren, lifeless body, but its bright presence in the sky has made it an object of curiosity since prehistory. In the 1960s and 1970s, during the era of superpower space competition, it was the target of streams of space missions, including six crewed landings. By the mid-1970s, interest in Moon exploration had faded out and wouldn't be revived for almost two decades. In the 1990s, interest in Moon exploration revived, though activities were low-key compared to the frantic efforts of the 1960s and early 1970s. Now a stream of new spacecraft is being sent to improve our knowledge of our neighbor world. This document provides a history of lunar exploration. A list of illustration credits is included at the end.
