Previously unnamed, the mare received its name in 1964 in reference to its selection as the target for the successful impact probe Ranger 7, the first American spacecraft to return closeup images of the Moon's surface.

[4] The outcrop of the Fra Mauro formation, where Apollo 14 landed[citation needed], is also located near Mare Cognitum.

On November 19, 1969, astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed Apollo 12's Lunar Module within walking distance of Surveyor 3, which had been on the Moon since 1967.

Named "Statio Cognitum"[5] the site's closeness to its intended target demonstrated NASA's capability of precise lunar landings.

[8] The Apollo 12 astronauts also noted the existence of small, shallow elongated depressions ("trenches" or "grooves") similar to those the Apollo 11 astronauts observed at Tranquility Base in the Sea of Tranquility; Shoemaker et al. preliminarily concluded in 1970 that these features reflected the direction and location of fractures in the underlying bedrock, into which fine-grained material settled, thereby creating the grooves.