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Landing · Soviet Union · Lavochkin design bureau (USSR)

Luna 24

Ended

Mare Crisium

Facts last verified against primary sources on 2026-10-10. Mission page →

Landing

1976-08-18 06:36 UTC

Target

12.71°N 62.21°E

Located after landing

Landed

1976-08-18 06:36 UTC

Soft landing

Sun · touchdown

−65.69°

NW (az 296°) · below the horizon

Earth · touchdown

+24.17°

W (az 267°) · direct link to Earth possible

Located after landing

2 km reference ring

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Site plan

N2 kmSunEarthLuna 232.3 km2.0 km

North up, true scale around the target point. Arrows: where the Sun and the Earth sit on the horizon at touchdown.

The sky from the landing site

Where the Sun and the Earth sit above the horizon from two days before touchdown through the following four weeks. Predicted by JPL Horizons for a smooth Moon: hills and crater walls are not included, and near the poles they can hide a Sun that is a degree or two up.

-90°-80°-70°-60°-50°-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°60°70°80°90°NNEESESSWWNWNSun · touchdownEarth
-100°-50°0°50°100°smooth-Moon horizonAug 16Aug 21Aug 26Aug 31Sep 5Sep 10Sep 15SunEarthtouchdown
Sun up
49% of the window
Next sunset
1976-09-11 04:00 UTC
Earth up
100% of the window
Earth elevation
22.3° to 30.4°

Source: JPL Horizons observer tables (DE441, Moon mean-Earth frame), Sun and Earth seen from 12.714°N 62.213°E at 0 m on the 1,737.4 km sphere, hourly, 1976-08-16 to 1976-09-15. “Sun up” means any part of the disk is above the smooth horizon. Method: landing-site sky.

Engine plume: reference distances

N600 m2 kmLuna 232.3 km1.0 km
  1. 155 mApollo 12 → Surveyor 3. Apollo 12 landed about 155 m from Surveyor 3, and its plume sandblasted the older lander. source
  2. 600 m1 cm gravel, Apollo-sized lander. Gravel 1 cm across leaves a Lunar Module–sized lander's plume at about 30 m/s and lands within 600 m; NASA gives up to about 1.5 km for 1–10 cm rocks. source
  3. 2 kmNASA heritage-site standoff. NASA recommends targeting touchdown at least 2 km from U.S. lander heritage sites (0.5 km from impact sites). source

No CLPS or Artemis lander has a published plume keep-out distance; these are reference cases, drawn around the target point, not limits for this lander. Fine dust leaves a plume at up to kilometres per second and is not stopped by any ring. No recorded hardware is within 2 km of the target point.

Hardware already nearby

  • Luna 23Lavochkin design bureau (USSR) · 1974 · hard landing2.3 km SW

Great-circle distance from the target point on the 1,737.4 km sphere, to landing and impact sites in our curated table.

Timeline

  1. 1976-08-19 05:25 UTCAscent stage lift-off from the Moon
  2. 1976-08-23 05:55 UTCSample capsule landed in western Siberia

Sources