Luna 9

Ye-6 No.13

Mission Profile

Luna 9 (Ye-6 No.13) was the Soviet spacecraft that achieved the first successful soft landing on the Moon on 3 February 1966, launched on 31 January 1966 aboard a Molniya-M rocket and landing in Oceanus Procellarum after a propulsive airbag-cushioned touchdown. The small lander capsule transmitted nine panoramic photographs of the lunar surface over three communications sessions, the first images ever taken from the lunar surface, revealing a desolate but stable rocky landscape that could support a landing spacecraft without sinking into the dust layer some scientists had feared. Luna 9's success came just four months before the American Surveyor 1 and definitively answered the question of whether the Moon's surface was solid enough to land upon safely, clearing a critical uncertainty for both nations' Apollo-era planning.