Luna 16

Mission Profile

Luna 16 was the Soviet Union's historic robotic lunar sample return mission, launched on 12 September 1970 aboard a Proton-K rocket, becoming the first uncrewed spacecraft to land on the Moon and return lunar samples to Earth. The spacecraft soft-landed in Mare Fecunditatis, drilled 35 cm into the lunar regolith, and returned a capsule containing 101 grams of lunar soil to Earth on 24 September 1970 — just 14 months after Apollo 11's crewed sample return. Luna 16 demonstrated an alternative path to lunar sample return without the enormous cost and risk of crewed missions and was followed by Luna 20 and Luna 24, which returned additional samples. The mission showed that robotic exploration could complement crewed missions for specific scientific objectives.