The initial settlement of Moon Township was a direct result of the westward expansion of English settlers and traders who arrived in the Ohio Valley in the early to mid-18th century.

On the southern banks of the Ohio River, political disputes among settlers clouded the disposition of lands.

As the 18th century drew to a close, abandoned lands were taken up by new settlers who were drawn to the region by the fertility of the soil.

This round of pioneers were, by and large, wealthier than their predecessors and had the means to develop the broken and hilly areas into plots suitable for farming.

[6] At this time Moon Township occupied an enormous tract of land, possibly 145 square miles (380 km2).

The sheer difficulty of settlers performing their civic duties (e.g., reporting to assigned polling places or attending jury trials) made it necessary for local governing authorities to parcel out the land into smaller municipalities.

Mooncrest residents produced armor plates, munitions and ships at the nearby Dravo Corp. during World War II.

Prior to this time, the western hills of Allegheny County consisted largely of rolling farms and small residential developments.

On April 1, 1956, TWA Flight 400 crashed on takeoff from the airport, killing 22 people just past the east end of the runway, which lies in Moon Township.

Moon experienced a significant loss of tax revenues but has since rebounded as the cargo area for the airport.

Playing off the township's unique name, supervisors in 2005 gave Moon a new slogan, "Explore Our Universe".

Across the Ohio River to the northwest, a section of Moon runs adjacent with (from north to south) Edgeworth, Sewickley, and Glen Osborne.

Major corporation headquarters in Moon include Nova Chemicals, FedEx Ground, Dick's Sporting Goods, and First Health/Coventry.

Moon Township is the location of the National Weather Service forecast office that serves Pittsburgh.

The extension, which opened in early 2008, created additional shovel-ready land for Class A office space, for corporate development.

[22][23] The West Hills Shopping Center, once the heart of Moon's commercial business, was sold to Walmart for $4.7 million and announced to the public on January 3, 2007.

[24] Walmart officials announced their plans to build a supercenter location on the site of what was the West Hills Shopping Center.

Since the 2003 renaming, township officials have researched various zoning ordinances to piece together Moon's main business corridor.

[35][36] The recognition includes the 15108 zip code covering Coraopolis borough, Kennedy and Moon townships.

[43] Then–Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump held a rally on June 11, 2016, at the Moon Township airplane hangar.