![[Luna 3 image of lunar farside]](luna3_farside.gif)
Soviet Lunar Missions
The image at the top of the page is the first image of the far side of the Moon,
taken by the Luna 3 spacecraft in October, 1959.
The Soviet Lunar program had 20 successful missions to the Moon and achieved a
number of notable lunar "firsts": first probe to impact the Moon, first flyby
and image of the lunar farside, first soft landing, first lunar orbiter, and
the first circumlunar probe to return to Earth. The two successful series
of Soviet probes were the Luna (24 lunar missions) and the Zond (5 lunar missions).
NSSDCA currently holds data from the Luna 3, 9, 13, 21, and 22 and the
Zond 3, 6, 7, and 8 missions.
All this data is photographic in nature,
except for the lunar libration data from the Luna 21 Orbiter.
Lunar flyby missions (Luna 3, Zond 3, 6, 7, 8)
obtained photographs of the lunar surface, particularly
the limb and farside regions. The Zond 6, 7, and 8 missions circled the
Moon and returned to Earth where they were recovered, Zond 6 and 7 in Siberia
and Zond 8 in the Indian Ocean. The purpose of the photography experiments
on the lunar landers (Luna 9, 13, 22) was to obtain closeup images of the
surface of the Moon for use in lunar studies and determination of the
feasibility of manned lunar landings.
Lunar surface close-up image from the Luna 9 lander in February, 1966 in the
Oceanus Procellarum.
![[Luna 9 image of lunar surface]](luna9close.gif)
Click on a mission name for information from the NASA Master Catalog.
The Luna Series
Launched 02 Jan 1959
Lunar Flyby
Launched 12 Sep 1959
Impacted Moon 14 Sep 1959 at ~07:30:00 UT
Latitude 29.10 N, Longitude 0.00 - Palus Putredinis
Launched 04 Oct 1959
Lunar Flyby
Launched 02 Apr 1963
Lunar Flyby
Launched 09 May 1965
Impacted Moon - Sea of Clouds
Launched 08 Jun 1965
Attempted Lander - Missed Moon
Launched 04 Oct 1965
Lunar Impact - Sea of Storms
Launched 03 Dec 1965
Lunar Impact - Sea of Storms
Launched 31 Jan 1966
Landed on Moon 03 Feb 1966 at 18:44:52 UT
Latitude 7.08 N, Longitude 295.63 E - Oceanus Procellarum
Launched 31 Mar 1966
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 24 Aug 1966
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 22 Oct 1966
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 21 Dec 1966
Landed on Moon 24 Dec 1966 at 18:01:00 UT
Latitude 18.87 N, 297.95 E - Oceanus Procellarum
Launched 7 Apr 1968
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 13 Jul 1969
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 12 Sep 1970
Landed on Moon 20 Sep 1970 at 05:18:00 UT
Latitude 0.68 S, Longitude 56.30 E - Mare Fecunditatis
Lunar Sample Return
Launched 10 Nov 1970
Landed on Moon 17 Nov 1970 at 03:47:00 UT
Latitude 38.28 N, Longitude 325.00 E - Mare Imbrium
Lunar Rover - Lunokhod 1
Launched 02 Sep 1971
Lunar Impact
Latitude 3.57 N, Longitude 50.50 E - Mare Fecunditatis
Launched 28 Sep 1971
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 14 Feb 1972
Landed on Moon 21 Feb 1972 at 19:19:00 UT
Latitude 3.57 N, Longitude 56.50 E - Mare Fecunditatis
Lunar Sample Return to Earth 25 Feb 1972
Launched 08 Jan 1973
Landed on Moon 15 Jan 1973 at 23:35:00 UT
Latitude 25.85 N, Longitude 30.45 E - LeMonnier Crater
Lunar Rover - Lunokhod 2
Launched 02 Jun 1974
Lunar Orbiter
Launched 28 Oct 1974
Lunar Lander - Mare Crisium
Launched 14 Aug 1976
Landed on Moon 18 Aug 1976 at 02:00:00 UT
Latitude 12.75 N, Longitude 62.20 E - Mare Crisium
Lunar Sample Return
The Zond Series
Launched 18 July 1965
Lunar Flyby
Launched 2 Mar 1968
Lunar Test Flight
Launched 15 Sep 1968
Circumlunar
Returned to Earth 21 Sep 1968
Launched 10 Nov 1968
Circumlunar
Returned to Earth 17 Nov 1968
Launched 07 Aug 1969
Circumlunar
Returned to Earth 14 Aug 1969
Launched 20 Oct 1970
Circumlunar
Returned to Earth 27 Oct 1970
Many of the images of Soviet lunar and planetary spacecraft are from the
Lavochkin Association.
Soviet Mission Data held at NSSDCA
Return to Lunar home page
Author/Curator:
Dr. David R. Williams, dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDCA, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258
NASA Official: Dave Williams, david.r.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 27 September 2005, DRW
![[Luna 3 image of lunar farside]](luna3_farside_big.gif)
![[Luna 9 image of lunar surface]](luna9close_big.gif)