Ares 6 (A World of Difference)

Ares 6 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans, Americans Phil Templeton and Derek Powers and Russians Andrej Yuryov and Dmitri Yennayev on the Moon on August 12, 2001, at 15:47 UTC. The four men became the first to step onto the Martian surface. Templeton and Yuryov spent the most time on the red planet, with Yennayev having the least time; and together they collected 34.1 pounds of material for return to Earth. Two more members of the mission, Rebecca White and Jerry Karoll, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until the others returned to it for the trip back to Earth. Ares 6 was the first of the Russo-American spaceflights that landed on the moon. Three more missions, Ares 7, Ares 8, and Ares 9 were scheduled for 2005, 2009, and 2012, but all three were delayed by the and the War on Terror and US involvement abroad, which cut funding from exploration and poured into military spending. Ares 7 was ultimately launched in 2006 and Ares 8 in 2010, with the last Ares mission for the next five years, Ares 9, scheduled for an early 2013 launch.