Luna programme

Luna 1

Luna 3

Luna 16

Luna 17

Locations of Luna landings on the Moon are marked in red; Apollo missions in green, and Surveyor in yellow.

The Luna programme (from the Russian word Луна "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called Lunik or Lunnik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander, and accomplished many firsts in space exploration. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon's chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation. Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched. Those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations. The estimated cost of the Luna programme was about $4.5 billion.

Achievements

Luna 1 missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to fall into orbit around the Sun.

In 1959, the Luna 2 mission successfully hit the moon's surface, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon.

Luna 3 rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, which can never be seen from Earth.

Luna 9 became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body (February 1966). It returned five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the Lunar surface.

Later that year Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.

Luna 17 and Luna 21 carried vehicles that roamed around on the Moon's terrain (see Lunokhod programme).

Another major achievement of the Luna programme, with the Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 spacecraft, was the ability to collect samples of lunar soil and return them to Earth, by 1970. The programme returned 0.326 kg of lunar samples. The Luna missions were the first space-exploration sample return missions to rely solely on advanced robotics.

Other notable missions

Luna 15, also designed to return soil samples from the lunar surface, underwent its mission at the same time as the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were already on the lunar surface when Luna 15 began its descent, and the spacecraft crashed into a mountain minutes later.

Failed missions

While the programme was active, it was Soviet practice not to release any details of missions which had failed to achieve orbit. This resulted in Western observers assigning their own designations to the missions, for example Luna E-1 No.1, the first failure of 1958 which NASA believed was associated with the Luna programme was known as Luna 1958A.

NASA identified a spacecraft which it referred to as Luna 1966A as having launched on 30 April 1966, a spacecraft which it referred to as Luna 1969B as having launched on 15 April 1969, and a spacecraft which it referred to as Luna 1970B as having launched on 19 February 1970. When details of Soviet launches were later disclosed, no launches of Luna spacecraft were found to have occurred on those dates.

Missions

Public name	Internal name	Mission	Launch date	Carrier rocket	Outcome	Remarks
N/A	E-1 No.1	Impactor	September 23, 1958	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-1 No.2	Impactor	October 11, 1958	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-1 No.3	Impactor	December 4, 1958	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 1	E-1 No.4	Impactor	January 2, 1959	Luna	Launch failure	Also known as Mechta; placed onto incorrect trajectory, flew past the Moon without impacting; first spacecraft to escape geocentric orbit
N/A	E-1A No.1	Impactor	June 18, 1959	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 2	E-1A No.2	Impactor	September 12, 1959	Luna	Successful	Impacted Palus Putredinis (29.10 N, 0.00 E) on the Moon on September 14, 1959 at ~07:30:00 UT
Luna 3	E-2A No.1	Flyby	October 4, 1959	Luna	Successful
N/A	E-3 No.1	Flyby	April 15, 1960	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-3 No.2	Flyby	April 16, 1960	Luna	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-6 No.2	Lander	January 4, 1963	Molniya-L	Launch failure	Never left LEO
N/A	E-6 No.3	Lander	February 3, 1963	Molniya-L	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 4	E-6 No.4	Lander	April 2, 1963	Molniya-L	Spacecraft failure	Failed to perform course correction manoeuvre; flew past the Moon
N/A	E-6 No.6	Lander	March 21, 1964	Molniya-M	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-6 No.5	Lander	April 20, 1964	Molniya-M	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Kosmos 60	E-6 No.9	Lander	March 12, 1965	Molniya-L	Launch failure	Never left LEO, decayed five days later
N/A	E-6 No.8	Lander	April 10, 1965	Molniya-L	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 5	E-6 No.10	Lander	May 9, 1965	Molniya-M	Spacecraft failure	Failed to decelerate; impacted Mare Nubium
Luna 6	E-6 No.7	Lander	June 8, 1965	Molniya-M	Spacecraft failure	Failed to perform course correction manoeuvre; flew past the Moon
Luna 7	E-6 No.11	Lander	October 4, 1965	Molniya	Spacecraft failure	Attitude control failure; impacted Oceanus Procellarum
Luna 8	E-6 No.12	Lander	December 3, 1965	Molniya	Spacecraft failure	Attitude control failure; impacted Oceanus Procellarum
Luna 9	E-6 No.13	Lander	January 31, 1966	Molniya-M	Successful	Landed in Oceanus Procellarum (7.08 N, 295.63 E) 18:44:52 UT on February 3, 1966
Kosmos 111	E-6S No.204	Orbiter	March 1, 1966	Molniya-M	Launch failure	Never left LEO, decayed two days later
Luna 10	E-6S No.206	Orbiter	March 31, 1966	Molniya-M	Successful
Luna 11	E-6LF No.101	Orbiter	August 24, 1966	Molniya-M	Successful
Luna 12	E-6LF No.102	Orbiter	October 22, 1966	Molniya-M	Successful
Luna 13	E-6M No.205	Lander	December 21, 1966	Molniya-M	Successful	Landed in Oceanus Procellarum (18.87 N, 297.95 E) 18:01:00 UT on December 24, 1966
N/A	E-6LS No.112	Orbiter	February 7, 1968	Molniya-M	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 14	E-6LS No.113	Orbiter	April 7, 1968	Molniya-M	Successful
N/A	E-8 No.201	Rover	February 19, 1969	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
N/A	E-8-5 No.402	Sample Return	June 14, 1969	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 15	E-8-5 No.401	Sample Return	July 13, 1969	Proton-K/D	Spacecraft failure	Entered selenocentric orbit successfully, failed during descent on 21 July 1969; impacted the moon while Apollo 11 was on the surface
Kosmos 300	E-8-5 No.403	Sample Return	September 23, 1969	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Never left LEO, decayed four days later
Kosmos 305	E-8-5 No.404	Sample Return	October 22, 1969	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Never left LEO, decayed two days later
N/A	E-8-5 No.405	Sample Return	February 6, 1970	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Failed to orbit
Luna 16	E-8-5 No.406	Sample Return	September 12, 1970	Proton-K/D	Successful	Landed in Mare Fecunditatis (0.68 S, 56.30 E) at 05:18:00 UT on September 20, 1970. Sample returned to Earth on September 24, 1970
Luna 17	E-8 No.203	Rover	November 10, 1970	Proton-K/D	Successful	Landed in Mare Imbrium (38.28 N, 325.00 E) at 03:47:00 UT on November 17, 1970. Deployed Lunokhod 1
Luna 18	E-8-5 No.407	Sample Return	September 2, 1971	Proton-K/D	Spacecraft failure	Entered selenocentric orbit successfully, failed during descent; impacted Mare Fecunditatis (3.57 N, 50.50 E)
Luna 19	E-8LS No.202	Orbiter	September 28, 1971	Proton-K/D	Successful
Luna 20	E-8-5 No.408	Sample Return	February 14, 1972	Proton-K/D	Successful	Landed in Mare Fecunditatis (3.57 N, 56.50 E) at 19:19:00 UT on February 21, 1972. Sample returned to Earth on February 25, 1972
Luna 21	E-8 No.204	Rover	January 8, 1973	Proton-K/D	Successful	Landed in Le Monnier (25.85 N, 30.45 E) at 23:35:00 UT on January 15, 1973. Deployed Lunokhod 2
Luna 22	E-8LS No.206	Orbiter	May 29, 1974	Proton-K/D	Successful
Luna 23	E-8-5M No.410	Sample Return	October 28, 1974	Proton-K/D	Spacecraft failure	Landed in Mare Crisium, fell over upon landing
N/A	E-8-5M No.412	Sample Return	October 16, 1975	Proton-K/D	Launch failure	Failed to orbit, intended to return a sample from Mare Crisium
Luna 24	E-8-5M No.413	Sample Return	August 9, 1976	Proton-K/D	Successful	Landed in Mare Crisium (12.25 N, 62.20 E) at 02:00:00 UT on August 18, 1976. Sample returned to Earth on August 22, 1976

See also

• Luna 8K72
• Soviet moonshot
• Soviet space program

External links

• Lunar and Planetary Department Moscow University
• Luna Series (USSR) Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Luna Space Probe
• Soviet Luna Chronology
• Soviet Lunar Images
• Exploring the Moon: Luna Missions