<Li> Luna 2 was the first man - made object to reach the surface of the Moon (bottom - left). </Li> <Li> Still frame from a video transmission, taken moments before Neil Armstrong became the first human to step onto the surface of the Moon, at 02: 56 UTC on 21 July 1969 . An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched this event, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time . </Li> <P> A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon . This includes both manned and unmanned (robotic) missions . The first human - made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959 . </P> <P> The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969 . There have been six manned U.S. landings (between 1969 and 1972) and numerous unmanned landings, with no soft landings happening from 22 August 1976 until 14 December 2013 . </P>

When did the first moon landing take place