On Sept. 20, 1970, the Soviet Union’s Luna 16 moon probe landed on the moon to retrieve a soil pattern. 4 days later, it turned the primary robotic spacecraft to return a pattern of lunar soil to Earth.
Luna 16 was the primary robotic spacecraft to reach touchdown on the moon, scooping up a soil pattern and returning it to Earth.
Earlier than Luna 16, the Soviet space program had tried and failed 5 instances to return a pattern from the moon.
General, this was the third lunar pattern delivered to Earth. NASA’s Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions had additionally introduced again some rocks and soil from the moon. Luna 16 made a delicate touchdown on the lunar floor in a mare generally known as “the Sea of Fertility,” the place it retrieved 101 grams of lunar soil.
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