On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. [13] [14] Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of leadership." [15] [16] His memo concluded that a crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first. [15] Shimbun, The Yomiuri (30 July 2019). "Japan, India to team up in race to discover water on moon". The Japan News . Retrieved 30 July 2019.

Dates are landing dates in Coordinated Universal Time. Except for the Apollo program, all soft landings were uncrewed. Buzz Aldrin (pictured) walked on the Moon with Neil Armstrong, on Apollo 11, July 20–21, 1969. Earthrise, the iconic 1968 image from Apollo 8 taken by astronaut William Anders No Apollo spacecraft; instrumentation and video observed on-orbit behavior of S-IVB liquid hydrogen fuel in support of restart capability design for Saturn V. Deemed a success, despite inadvertent destruction of S-IVB during final overpressure tank rupture test. Smith-Schoenwalder, Cecelia (26 March 2019). "Pence Tells NASA to Put Americans on the Moon in 5 Years". U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved 20 February 2021. Partial success – looped around Moon, successful reentry, but loss of cabin air pressure caused biological payload death, parachute system malfunction and severe vehicle damage upon landing

A gap in the record

Apollo 20". Astronautix. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016 . Retrieved March 15, 2018. First circumlunar flight of CSM, had ten lunar orbits in 20 hours. First crewed flight of Saturn V.

NASA's director of flight crew operations during the Apollo program was Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts who was medically grounded in September 1962 due to a heart murmur. Slayton was responsible for making all Gemini and Apollo crew assignments. [69]

Several planned missions of the Apollo program were canceled for a variety of reasons, including changes in technical direction, the Apollo 1 fire, hardware delays, and budget limitations. Chandrayaan 2 will carry NASA's laser instruments to Moon' ". The Hindu. PTI. 26 March 2019. ISSN 0971-751X . Retrieved 14 April 2019.