AntarikshPedia
Luna 9

1957–1969: Opening the Space Age

Luna 9

First soft landing and first images from the lunar surface.

Era 1 of 6 · full record in the catalog

Launch
31 Jan 1966
Lead / partner
Soviet Union
Target
Moon
Category
Lunar lander
Status
Success
Vehicle
Molniya-M 8K78M s
Mass
unknown
Orbit / trajectory
Geocentric
Duration
6 days, 11 hours, 10 minutes

Why it happened

Luna 9 flew during 1957–1969: Opening the Space Age, 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 soft landing and first images from the lunar surface.

Results

First soft landing and first images from the lunar surface.

Related missions

Luna 9 Luna 10 — same_target Luna 10 Surveyor 1 — same_target Surveyor 1 Lunar Orbiter 5 — same_target Lunar Orbiter… Ranger 7 — same_target Ranger 7

Sources & image credits

  • Stolbovsky, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · license: cc-by-4.0 (source, checked 2026-08-23)
  • Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
  • Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog