Apollo 11 mission trajectory. Illustration of the trajectories and spacecraft used in the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. Launched by a Saturn V rocket, the Apollo astronauts travelled to the Moon in a command and service module (CSM). Once in lunar orbit (right), the lunar module (LM) descended to the surface. This consisted of a lander and an ascent stage, used to ascend back to the CSM. At the end of the return journey, the descent back to Earth (including use of parachutes) was in the conical command module section of the CSM. There were 11 crewed Apollo missions, flown by NASA from 1968 to 1972. Apollo 7 in October 1968 was the first to orbit the Earth with a crew. Apollo 11 (July 1969) was the first to land on the Moon. The last mission was Apollo 17 in December 1972.