Luna 21
Sign in to saveAlso known as Lunik 21
Soviet spacecraft that landed on the Moon and deployed the Lunokhod 2 lunar rover
Key facts
- Mission type
- Planetary Science
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar id
- 1973-001A
- Mission duration
- 8 days (day of launch to day of landing)
- Spacecraft
- s/n 204
- Spacecraft type
- Ye-8
- Manufacturer
- GSMZ Lavochkin
- Launch mass
- 5,700 kg (12,600 lb)
- Dry mass
- 4,850 kg (10,690 lb)
- Launch date
- 06:55:38, 8 January 1973 (UTC) ( 1973-01-08T06:55:38Z )
- Rocket
- Proton-K / D
- Launch site
- Baikonur 81/23
- Reference system
- Selenocentric
- Periselene altitude
- 90 km (56 mi)
- Aposelene altitude
- 100 km (62 mi)
- Inclination
- 60°
- Orbital insertion
- 12 January 1973
- Orbits
- ~36
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- artificial satellite
- Part of
- Lunokhod programme
- Has part
- Lunokhod 2
- Country
- Russia
- Followed by
- Luna 22
- Follows
- Luna 20
- Official website
- www.laspace.ru/rus/luna21.html
- Image
- Luna 21.jpg
- Significant event
- rocket launch
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Luna 21
- space launch vehicle
- Proton-K
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1973-01-08
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Luna programme
Luna 21 (Ye-8 series) was an uncrewed space mission, and its spacecraft, of the Luna program, also called Lunik 21, in 1973. The spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover, Lunokhod 2. The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments from Earth, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study mechanical properties of the lunar surface material.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Luna 21” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.