AntarikshPedia
Luna 16

1970–1985: Solar-System Firsts and Scientific Reach

Luna 16

First robotic return of lunar soil to Earth.

Era 2 of 6 · full record in the catalog

Launch
12 Sep 1970
Lead / partner
Soviet Union
Target
Moon
Category
Lunar sample return
Status
Success
Vehicle
unknown
Mass
unknown
Orbit / trajectory
unknown

Why it happened

Luna 16 flew during 1970–1985: Solar-System Firsts and Scientific Reach, as part of Soviet Union's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.

The mission

The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First robotic return of lunar soil to Earth.

Results

First robotic return of lunar soil to Earth.

Related missions

Luna 16 Lunokhod 1 — same_target Lunokhod 1 Apollo 11 — same_target Apollo 11 Luna 19 — same_target Luna 19 Apollo 8 — same_target Apollo 8

Sources & image credits

  • Image credit: NASA · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-23)
  • Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
  • Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog