The first people to see mountains on the moon were the astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission, who orbited the moon in December 1968. While they didn't land, their photographs and observations from lunar orbit provided the first close-up views of the lunar surface, including its mountainous regions.

While telescopes had been used for centuries to observe the moon, they lacked the resolution to clearly distinguish individual features like mountains. The Apollo 8 mission marked a pivotal moment in our understanding of the moon's landscape.