Which side of the moon did the astronauts land on?

Question

Did they land on the side that's always facing the earth? Has there ever been a landing on the 'dark' side?

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Answer 1

All landings were on the near side.  It's easier, because they could be in constant communication with Earth.

The other side is called the far side.  When the Moon is new, the far side is lit up by the Sun.

Answer 2

All landings had to be on the near side (the side facing the Earth) for the sake of communication Here's a map:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/sli...

Here's another good site:http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~durda/Apoll...

Answer 3

Yes and no.

Answer 4

All manned moon landings were on the Earth-visible side of the moon.

Answer 5

James Mitchner used a fictional far-side landing in his novel, _Space_. The problem in reality was, as someone said, lack of communications with the far side without putting relay sat's in lunar orbit.

Incidentally, one big bugaboo of mine is when folks mean to refer to the far side of the moon and instead call it the dark side. Naturally, the far side gets as much light as the near side does. Thank you, Gary Larson, for titling his strip "The Far Side."

Answer 6

The side facing us.  The later missions went closer to the North Pole, while the rest were closer to Geologic features, mostly seen from the side lit up from the sun.