OTD in Space – January 8: Soviet Union Launches 2nd Lunar Rover
- last year
On January 8, 1973, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 21 mission to land a rover on the moon. [‘On This Day in Space’ Video Series on Space.com](https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html)
This was the second time that the Soviet Union put a rover on the moon,and it was the 13th successful lunar landing of the Luna program. Like the other Luna missions, Luna 21 was an uncrewed, robotic spacecraft. It launched on a Proton rocket and touched down in the Le Monnier crater one week later. About three hours after landing, it deployed the rover, Lunokhod 2. The rover traveled about 24 miles and took more than 80,000 photos on the moon before it accidentally rolled into a crater, where it got dust all over its solar panels and died.
This was the second time that the Soviet Union put a rover on the moon,and it was the 13th successful lunar landing of the Luna program. Like the other Luna missions, Luna 21 was an uncrewed, robotic spacecraft. It launched on a Proton rocket and touched down in the Le Monnier crater one week later. About three hours after landing, it deployed the rover, Lunokhod 2. The rover traveled about 24 miles and took more than 80,000 photos on the moon before it accidentally rolled into a crater, where it got dust all over its solar panels and died.