The Luna programme (from the Russian word " Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of

robotic spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which t ...

missions sent to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

between 1959 and 1976. The programme accomplished many firsts in space exploration, including first flyby of the Moon, first impact of the Moon and first photos of the far side of the Moon. Each mission was designed as either an orbiter or lander. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon's

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

composition,

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

, and

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

. Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched. Those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given

Cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

designations. The estimated cost of the Luna programme in 1964 was US$6–10 billion (equivalent to US$– billion in ). The

Luna 25 Luna 25 (or Luna-25; ) was a failed Russian lunar lander mission by Roscosmos in August 2023 that planned to land near the lunar south pole, in the vicinity of the crater Boguslawsky (crater), Boguslawsky. Initially called the Luna-Glob lander ...

mission also continues the Luna designation, although it is considered to be a part of the

Luna-Glob Luna-Glob (, meaning ''Lunar sphere'') is a Moon exploration programme by Roscosmos meant to progress toward the creation of a fully robotic lunar base. When completed, the programme is intended to continue with crewed lunar missions, starting ...

exploration programme. The same applies to other planned missions such as

Luna 26 Luna 26 (Luna-Resurs-Orbiter
Luna-27, The Pla ...

and

Luna 28 Luna 28 (Luna Resource 2 or Luna-Grunt rover) is a proposed sample-return mission from the south polar region of the Moon. Impactor spacecraft had the generic designation of Ye-1 (or E-1 depending on transliteration from Russian) and were designed to hit the near side of the Moon.

Luna 1 ''Luna 1'', also known as ''Mechta'' ( , ''Literal translation, lit.'': ''Dream''), ''E-1 No.4'' and ''First Lunar Rover'', was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of Earth's Moon, the first spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit, and the fi ...

(January 1959) missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to escape the Earth-Moon system.

Luna 2 ''Luna 2'' (), originally named the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket and nicknamed Lunik 2 in contemporaneous media, was the sixth of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon, E-1 No.7. It was the first spacecraft Moon landi ...

(September 1959) mission successfully hit the Moon's surface, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon. This was Luna's only impact success out of six tries from September 1958 to September 1959.

Flybys

A flyby is the simplest lunar spacecraft, requiring neither a propulsion device for slowing, nor a guidance system sensitive enough to hit the Moon. Flyby spacecraft had the generic designations of Ye-2 and Ye-3 (E-2 and E-3 depending on transliteration from Russian). Their function was to transmit photographs back to Earth.

Luna 3 Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 (), was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. The hi ...

(October 1959) rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, which can never be seen from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. This was Luna's only successful flyby, out of three tries from October 1959 to April 1960.

Soft landers

Soft landers require rocket propulsion to slow their speed sufficiently to prevent the craft's destruction. They can continue to transmit pictures from the surface, and possibly dig into the lunar soil or return other information about the lunar environment. Luna program landers had the generic designations of Ye-6 or Ye-6M (E-6 or E-6M depending on transliteration from Russian). Two successful soft landings were achieved out of thirteen attempts from January 1963 to December 1966.

Luna 9 Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and return ima ...

(''E-6 No.13'') became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body in February 1966. It transmitted five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the lunar surface.

Orbiters

Orbiter spacecraft require less thrust and propellant than landers, but still require enough to achieve lunar orbit insertion. Luna 10 (March 1966) became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. Luna program orbiters had the generic designations of Ye-6LF, Ye-6LS, Ye-6S or Ye-8LS (E-6, E-6LS, E-6S or E-8LS depending on transliteration from Russian). Luna flew six successful orbiters out of eight attempts from March 1966 to May 1974.

Rovers

More sophisticated soft lander craft can deploy wheeled vehicles to explore a wider area of the lunar surface than the immediate landing site. Luna program landers with rovers had the generic designations of Ye-8 (E-8 depending on transliteration from Russian). The first attempted Lunokhod failed in February 1969. Luna 17 (November 1970) and Luna 21 (January 1973) carried Lunokhod vehicles, which were the first robotic wheeled vehicles to explore the Moon's terrain.

Lunokhod 1 ''Lunokhod 1'' (Russian language, Russian: Луноход-1 "Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203") was the first rover (space exploration), robotic rover lunar rover, on the Moon and the first to freel ...

travelled in 322 days and returned more than 20,000 television images and 206 high-resolution panoramas.

Lunokhod 2 ''Lunokhod 2'' ( ("Moonwalker 2"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 204 ("Device 8EL No. 204")) was the second of two uncrewed space mission, uncrewed lunar rover (space exploration), rovers that landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as ...

operated for about four months, and covered of terrain, A third Lunokhod was built and intended for launch in 1977, but never flew due to lack of launchers and funding.

Sample return

More complex soft lander craft can robotically scoop up a small amount of lunar material, lift off from the surface, and return the material to Earth. Luna program sample return landers had the generic designations of Ye-8-5 or Ye-8-5M (E-8-5 or E-8-5M depending on transliteration from Russian). Luna 16 (September 1970), Luna 20 (February 1972) and Luna 24 (August 1976), returned samples of

lunar soil Lunar regolith is the unconsolidated material found on the selenography, surface of the Moon and in the Lunar atmosphere, Moon's tenuous atmosphere. Sometimes referred to as Lunar soil, Lunar soil specifically refers to the component of regoli ...

to Earth. A total of of soil sample was returned from the three missions.

Luna 15 Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that was in lunar orbit together with the Apollo 11 Command module ''Columbia''. On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic ...

(July 1969) flew at the same time as the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

mission.

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...

and

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin ( ; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three extravehicular activity, spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eag ...

had already performed the first crewed lunar landing when Luna 15 began its descent, and the spacecraft crashed into a mountain minutes later.

Mission success rates

While the programme was active, it was Soviet practice not to release any details of missions that had failed to achieve orbit. This resulted in Western observers assigning their own designations to the missions. For example, Luna E-1 No.1, the first failure of 1958 which NASA believed was associated with the Luna programme, was known as Luna 1958A.

Mission details

References

External links

Lunar and Planetary Department Moscow University

Luna Series (USSR) Profile
b
NASA's Solar System Exploration

''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Luna Space Probe

Soviet Luna Chronology

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luna Programme Single-stage-to-orbit Missions to the Moon Soviet lunar program