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
12 to the Moon The International Space Order has organized the first manned landing on the Moon, with the goal of claiming it as 'international territory'. The crew of spaceship Lunar Eagle 1 comprises 12 people from around the world - 10 men and two women, all scientists with different specialties - accompanied by a small menagerie, including two cats. The spaceship is commanded by an American, John Anderson (Ken Clark). Historical and international tensions flare up in-flight. Feodor Orloff (Tom Conway), a Russian, struts about, annoyingly claiming that all scientific advancements were invented by the Soviets. Israeli David Ruskin (Richard Weber) warns Feodor