Lunokhod 2

Ended

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

Facts

Operator: Lavochkin design bureau (USSR)
Country: SU
Type: rover
Launch: 1973-01-08 06:55 UTC
Landing: 1973-01-15 22:35 UTC
End: 1973-05-10 12:25 UTC

Landing site

Le Monnier crater (final parked position) · 25.8323°N 30.9221°E

Soft landing · source: pds.lroc.im-ldi.com

Landed

Planned landing site

Crash or hard landing

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Timeline

1973-01-16 01:14 UTCDisembarked from the Luna 21 lander

Links

Sources

LROC Anthropogenic (man-made) Features on the Moon, PDS LRO-L-LROC-5-RDR-V1.0 EXTRAS/SHAPEFILE/ANTHROPOGENIC_OBJECTS (Wagner et al. 2017, Icarus 283, 92-103)README last updated 2026-08-142026-10-10
Siddiqi, A. A. (2018) Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016, NASA SP-2018-40412nd edition, 20182026-10-10
NSSDCA Master Catalog: Luna 21 (1973-001A)2026-10-10

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

Landed aboard Luna 21. landing_site is the rover's final parked position from its retroreflector (LROC table COORD_SRC 'Laser Ranging'); uncertainty listed as 0 in the LROC table for laser-ranging points, so uncertainty_m is omitted. end_utc is the end of operations per an internal Soviet report cited by Siddiqi (2018); the Soviet news agency announced the end on 3 June 1973. Traverse recalculated from LRO imagery as 42.1-42.2 km (Siddiqi 2018).