Luna 9 (Ye-6 No.13), a Soviet lunar soft-lander that became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon and return surface imagery (Ocean of Storms, 3 February). Molniya-M from Baikonur lofted it on 31 January 1966 on a lunar-transfer trajectory.
- Outcome
- Success
- Orbit
- LO
- Lunar orbit
- Payload to orbit
- 2.2 T
- Flight
- 2nd
- of 272 Molniya-M 2BL flights
- Date and time
- 31 January 1966, 11:41 UTC
- Rocket
- Molniya-M 2BL
- Builder
- Progress RSC
- Launch site
- 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
- Payload
- Lunar Exploration
- International designator
- 1966-006
- Launches in 1966
- 7th of 131
See it in orbit
Space Atlas shows the satellites and rocket stages from this launch in 3D.
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