Humanity is heading back to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis missions, so let’s take this opportunity to look back at how we’ve studied and adventured to the Moon in the past. Apollo and Artemis are twins in Greek mythology, so the name Artemis was chosen because these missions are building on the original knowledge that we gained from the original Apollo Moon missions. Learn more about the Artemis missions, the astronauts assigned, and the planned experiments and observations in store from NASA’s website here.

For All Mankind – The Apollo Space Missions

Sorting through nearly one hundred hours of film and sound recordings recovered from NASA – shot between December 1968 and November 1972, in the heyday of the space programme – director Al Rienart has pieced together a seamless documentary commemorating the 24 men who travelled to the moon as the entire US watched in awe. -Kanopy

Using NASA footage from Apollo 7 through Apollo 17, this documentary gives an overview of the crewed Apollo missions.

JPL and the Space Age

JPL and the Space Age uses rare archival footage and interviews with many of JPL’s pioneering engineers and scientists in the retelling of many of humanity’s first steps out into the cosmos. -Kanopy

This series was created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory itself and gives insight into not only the astronauts involved with space exploration, but also the engineers and scientists. The different episodes focus on different missions, from the early days at NASA, to exploring the Moon, Mars, and Saturn, the Voyager probes, and more.

First to the Moon: The Journey of Apollo 8

In 1968, NASA sent three men farther and faster than anyone had gone before. This is the story of how Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders changed history on the flight of Apollo 8. -Kanopy

This documentary tells us the story of Apollo 8, the first mission where astronauts left the Earth’s orbit. Like the upcoming Artemis II mission, they orbited around the moon, but didn’t land. This mission also gave us the infamous Earthrise photo taken by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968.

8 Days: To the Moon and Back

Seamlessly blending Apollo 11 mission audio featuring conversations between Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins with news footage, NASA archive, and stunning CGI, this film is a stunning recreation of the first moon landing. -Kanopy

It is not until the Artemis III mission currently scheduled for 2028 that humans will once again step foot on the Moon, but with this documentary you can look back at the first mission that put humanity on the surface of the Moon.

Artemis I: The Documentary

Through Artemis, NASA will once again land humans on the Moon. But before that can happen, we must first launch our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—the most powerful rocket we’ve ever built—and Orion spacecraft on a flight test around the Moon. -Kanopy

The first Artemis mission took place at the end of 2022, it was an uncrewed flyby of the Moon to test the Orion spacecraft and other technologies before sending astronauts on future missions, take a look at all that was accomplished with this documentary.

While in Kanopy explore the other documentaries available such as Listen to the Universe, which highlights how scientists not only create images of our universe, but also “sonifications” that translate the data into sound that can be listened to and learned from and The Color of Space, which takes a look at seven current and former Black astronauts as they trained for their missions. Kanopy also has films available such as the once believed lost A Trip to the Moon, Georges Méliès’ 1902 science fiction adventure inspired by Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon.