Editing Apollo program (section)

==Recent observations==
[[File:Apollo11-LRO-March2012.jpg|thumb|right|[[Tranquility Base]], imaged in March 2012 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter]]

In 2008, [[Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]]'s [[SELENE]] probe observed evidence of the halo surrounding the Apollo 15 Lunar Module blast crater while orbiting above the lunar surface.<ref>{{cite press release |title=The 'halo' area around Apollo 15 landing site observed by Terrain Camera on SELENE(KAGUYA) |date=May 20, 2008 |publisher=[[Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]] |location=Chōfu, Tokyo |url=http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/05/20080520_kaguya_e.html |access-date=November 19, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091212114843/http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/05/20080520_kaguya_e.html |archive-date=December 12, 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in 2009, NASA's [[robotic spacecraft|robotic]] [[Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter]], while orbiting {{convert|50|km|mi|sigfig=2|sp=us}} above the Moon, photographed the remnants of the Apollo program left on the lunar surface, and each site where crewed Apollo flights landed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html |title=LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites |last1=Hautaluoma |first1=Grey |last2=Freeberg |first2=Andy |editor-last=Garner |editor-first=Robert|date=July 17, 2009 |publisher=NASA |access-date=November 19, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091116012309/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html| archive-date= November 16, 2009 |url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/revisited/index.html |editor-last=Townsend |editor-first=Jason |title=Apollo Landing Sites Revisited |publisher=NASA |access-date=November 19, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091113094613/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/revisited/index.html| archive-date= November 13, 2009 |url-status= live}}</ref> All of the U.S. flags left on the Moon during the Apollo missions were found to still be standing, with the exception of the one left during the Apollo 11 mission, which was blown over during that mission's lift-off from the lunar surface; the degree to which these flags retain their original colors remains unknown.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/620-Question-Answered!.html |title=Question Answered! |last=Robinson |first=Mark |date=July 27, 2012 |work=LROC News System |publisher=[[Arizona State University]] |access-date=October 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024061649/http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?%2Farchives%2F620-Question-Answered%21.html |archive-date=October 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The flags cannot be seen through a telescope from Earth.

In a November 16, 2009, editorial, ''[[The New York Times]]'' opined:
{{blockquote|[T]here's something terribly wistful about these photographs of the Apollo landing sites. The detail is such that if Neil Armstrong were walking there now, we could make him out, make out his footsteps even, like the astronaut footpath clearly visible in the photos of the Apollo 14 site. Perhaps the wistfulness is caused by the sense of simple grandeur in those Apollo missions. Perhaps, too, it's a reminder of the risk we all felt after the Eagle had landed—the possibility that it might be unable to lift off again and the astronauts would be stranded on the Moon. But it may also be that a photograph like this one is as close as we're able to come to looking directly back into the human past{{nbsp}}...

There the [Apollo 11] lunar module sits, parked just where it landed 40 years ago, as if it still really were 40 years ago and all the time since merely imaginary.<ref name="nyt_lro_lm_img">{{cite news|title=The Human Moon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/opinion/17tue4.html |work=The New York Times |date=November 16, 2009 |access-date=November 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231162941/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/opinion/17tue4.html |archive-date=December 31, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}