Moon by the Soviet Union's Luna 2, an unmanned spacecraft. The United States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned lunar missions to date, beginning with the first manned orbital mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned landings between 1969 and 1972, with the first being Apollo 11. These missions returned lunar rocks which have been used to develop a geological understanding of the Moon's origin, internal structure, and the Moon's later history. Since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by unmanned spacecraft. Both the Moon's natural prominence in the earthly sky and
The New Moon "The New Moon" is vibrant, full-bodied and – yes – stouthearted." John Kenrick praised Rodney Gilfrey, Christiane Noll, Brandon Jovanovich, the supporting cast and the conducting, writing: "What a spectacular delight! ... [the] songs soar, exploding with romance and swashbuckling bravado." The New Moon The New Moon is the name of an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third and last in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg (after "The Student Prince" (1924) and "The Desert Song" (1926)) written in the style