The Luna Programme: Soviet Probes to the Moon, 1959 to 1976

Luna 1, also known as Mechta, was launched on 2 January 1959 by OKB-1. It was meant to hit the Moon but passed by instead, becoming the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, the first to leave Earth orbit and the first placed into orbit around the Sun.

Luna 2 flew a direct path to the Moon and impacted its surface on 13 September 1959. It was the first spacecraft to touch the Moon and the first human-made object to make contact with another celestial body.

Launched on 4 October 1959, Luna 3 was a lunar flyby built by OKB-1. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon, and its views were exciting enough to lead to a tentative atlas of that hidden hemisphere.

Luna 10, launched on 31 March 1966, was the first artificial satellite of the Moon. It was also the first artificial satellite of any body other than Earth or the Sun, and it carried out research from lunar orbit.

Luna 16 flew in 1970 and was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. It brought back about 101 grams from Mare Fecunditatis, the third lunar sample return overall after Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.

Luna 17, launched on 10 November 1970, deployed the first robotic rover onto the surface of the Moon, the vehicle later known as Lunokhod 1. The mission moved the series from landing on the Moon to driving across it.

Luna 20, launched on 14 February 1972, was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as a robotic counterpart to the American Apollo sample return missions, and its samples were recovered the following day.

Luna 21 landed on the Moon in 1973 and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover, Lunokhod 2. Its objectives included imaging the lunar surface, testing astronomical observation from the Moon, laser ranging with Earth, solar X-ray observation and magnetic field measurements.

Luna 24, the twenty fourth Luna mission, was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil. It landed in Mare Crisium and returned about 170.1 grams of lunar material to Earth on 22 August 1976.