Luna 9
A replica of Luna 9 on display in the Museum of Air and Space Paris, Le Bourget
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| Mission type | Lunar lander |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 1966-006A |
| Mission duration | 6 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Ye-6 |
| Manufacturer | GSMZ Lavochkin |
| Launch mass | 1,580 kilograms (3,480 lb) |
| Landing mass | 99 kilograms (218 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 31 January 1966, 11:45:00 UTC |
| Rocket | Molniya-M 8K78M |
| Launch site | Baikonur 31/6 |
| End of mission | |
| Last contact | 6 February 1966, 22:55 UTC |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Highly elliptical |
| Perigee | 220 kilometres (140 mi) |
| Apogee | 500,000 kilometres (310,000 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.8 degrees |
| Period | 14.96 days |
| Epoch | 31 January 1966 |
| Lunar lander | |
| Landing date | 3 February 1966, 18:45:30 UTC |
| Landing site | 7°05′N 64°22′W / 7.08°N 64.37°W |
Luna 9, internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, or any planetary body other than Earth, and to transmit photographic data to Earth from the surface of another planetary body.
The lander had a mass of 99 kilograms (218 lb). It used a landing bag to survive the impact speed of 22 kilometres per hour (6.1 m/s; 14 mph). It was a hermetically sealed container with radio equipment, a program timing device, heat control systems, scientific apparatus, power sources, and a television system.
Luna 9 was launched by a Molniya-M rocket, serial number 103-32, flying from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Liftoff took place at 11:41:37 UTC on 31 January 1966. The first three stages of the four-stage carrier rocket injected the payload and fourth stage into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 168 by 219 kilometres (104 by 136 mi) and 51.8 degrees inclination. The fourth stage, a Blok-L, then fired to raise the orbit's perigee to a new apogee approximately 500,000 kilometres (310,000 mi), before deploying Luna 9 into a highly elliptical geocentric orbit.
The spacecraft then spun itself up to 0.67 rpm using nitrogen jets. On 1 February at 19:29 UT, a mid-course correction took place involving a 48-second burn and resulting in a delta-V of 71.2 metres per second (234 ft/s).
At an altitude of 8,300 kilometres (5,200 mi) from the Moon, the spacecraft was oriented for the firing of its retrorockets and its spin was stopped in preparation for landing. At 25 kilometres (16 mi) above the lunar surface, the radar altimeter triggered the jettison of the side modules, the inflation of the air bags and the firing of the retro rockets. At 250 metres (820 ft) from the surface, the main retrorocket was turned off and the four outrigger engines were used to slow the craft. Approximately 5 metres (16 ft) above the lunar surface, a contact sensor touched the ground triggering the engines to be shut down and the landing capsule to be ejected. The craft landed at 22 kilometres per hour (6.1 m/s; 14 mph)
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