Little West (lunar crater) maps. The name was officially approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature on July 26, 2017 alongside another small crater near the landing site called Double. Little West (lunar crater) Little West is a small crater (30-meter diameter) in Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon, east of the Apollo 11 landing site known as Tranquility Base. The Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" approximately 60 meters west of Little West Crater on July 20, 1969. This is the crater Neil Armstrong mentions during his final descent onto the lunar surface. The
Apollo 11 three astronauts died, and the subsequent investigation. In October 1968, Apollo 7 evaluated the command module in Earth orbit, and in December Apollo 8 tested it in lunar orbit. In March 1969, Apollo 9 put the lunar module through its paces in Earth orbit, and in May Apollo 10 conducted a "dress rehearsal" in lunar orbit. By July 1969, all was in readiness for Apollo 11 to take the final step onto the Moon. The Soviet Union competed with the US, but were hampered by repeated failures in development of their N1 launcher, which was comparable to the Saturn V.