09/10/2026
This is the Apollo Moon Lander built from Scratch. Wood. The Apollo Lunar Module (LM), often called the Apollo lander, was the two-stage spacecraft that carried astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back. Built by Grumman, it had no streamlining or heat shield because it only flew in vacuum: the gold-foil descent stage used a throttleable engine for the landing, while the boxy ascent stage later launched from the lunar surface to rendezvous with the Command Module. Six crews landed in LMs between 1969 and 1972; the first was Apollo 11’s Eagle, which touched down in the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. After each mission the descent stage was left behind as a permanent monument on the Moon.