Luna 9 landing
FEB 03, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031146
On this date in 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to achieve a controlled, or “soft”, landing on the Moon (and thereby on any planetary body other than Earth.) It was also the first spacecraft to send photographs to Earth from the surface of another planetary body. Launched by the Soviet Union on 31 January 1966 aboard a three-stage Molniya-M rocket, Luna 9 was the 12th attempt by the USSR at a soft landing. It landed west of the craters Reiner and Marius in the Oceanus Procellarum, near the crash site of Luna 8.
Date in History: 3 February 1966
© 2016. American Institute of Physics