Luna 9

Ended

Facts last verified against primary sources on 2026-10-10

Landing page: target, Sun and Earth from the site, nearby hardware →

Facts

Operator: Lavochkin design bureau (USSR)
Country: SU
Type: lander
Launch: 1966-01-31 11:41 UTC
Landing: 1966-02-03 18:44 UTC
End: 1966-02-06 22:55 UTC

Landing site

Oceanus Procellarum · 7.0800°N 64.3700°W

Soft landing · source: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov

Landed

Planned landing site

Crash or hard landing

Hover for names · click to open · drag to turn

Links

Sources

Siddiqi, A. A. (2018) Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016, NASA SP-2018-40412nd edition, 20182026-10-10
NSSDCA, Soviet Lunar Missions summary page (D. R. Williams)2026-10-10
NSSDCA Master Catalog: Luna 9 (1966-006A)2026-10-10

Generated 2026-10-10T00:00:00Z

First survivable (soft) landing on the Moon. Landing coordinates are the nominal reported values from the NSSDCA Soviet missions page (7.08 N, 295.63 E converted to east-positive -64.37); the lander has NOT been located in LROC NAC images (absent from the LROC anthropogenic objects table), so no uncertainty is given. Siddiqi (2018) reports the announced site as 7 deg 8' N / 64 deg 32' W 'but closer to 8 deg N / 64 deg W'. Landing time 18:44:52 UT is from NSSDCA; Siddiqi gives the capsule impact time as 18:45:30 UT. Launch time and last communication session (ended 22:55 UT on 6 Feb 1966) from Siddiqi (2018). The NSSDCA Master Catalog record (1966-006A) returned an error page when fetched on 2026-10-10.