Key facts
- Mission type
- Lunar sample return
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar id
- 1972-007A
- Mission duration
- 11 days (day of launch to day of landing)
- Bus
- Ye-8-5
- Manufacturer
- GSMZ Lavochkin
- Launch mass
- 5,725 kilograms (12,621 lb)
- Dry mass
- 5,600 kilograms (12,300 lb)
- Launch date
- 14 February 1972, 03:27:58 ( 1972-02-14UTC03:27:58Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Proton-K / D
- Launch site
- Baikonur 81/24
- Landing date
- 25 February 1972, 19:19 ( 1972-02-25UTC19:20Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- 47°24′N 68°36′E / 47.400°N 68.600°E / 47.400; 68.600 , 40 km north of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
- Reference system
- Selenocentric
- Semi major axis
- 6,477.8 kilometres (4,025.1 mi)
- Periselene altitude
- 100 kilometres (62 mi)
- Aposelene altitude
- 100 kilometres (62 mi)
- Inclination
- 65 degrees
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions.
Luna 20 was placed in an intermediate Earth parking orbit and from this orbit was sent towards the Moon. It entered lunar orbit on 18 February 1972. On 21 February 1972, Luna 20 soft landed on the Moon in a mountainous area known as the Terra Apollonius (or Apollonius highlands) near Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility), 120 km from where Luna 16 had landed.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Luna 20” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
On the map
2 mapped locations