NASA Solarsystem Collection

Luna 20

This was the eighth Soviet spacecraft launched to return lunar soil to Earth. It was evidently sent to complete the mission that Luna 18 had failed to accomplish.

After a 4.5- day flight to the Moon, which included a single midcourse correction on 15 February, Luna 20 entered orbit around the Moon on 18 February. Initial orbital parameters were 100 x 100 kilometers at 65° inclination.

Three days later, at 19:13 UT, the spacecraft fired its main engine for 267 seconds to begin descent to the lunar surface. A second firing further reduced velocity before Luna 20 set down safely on the Moon at 19:19 UT on 21 February 1972 at coordinates 3°32' north latitude and 56°33' east longitude, only 1.8 kilometers from the crash site of Luna 18.

After collecting a small sample of lunar soil, the spacecraft's ascent stage lifted off at 22:58 UT on 22 February and quickly accelerated to 2.7 kilometers per second velocity -- sufficient to return to Earth.

The small spherical capsule eventually parachuted down safely on an island in the Karkingir River, 40 kilometers north of the town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan, at 19:19 UT on 25 February 1972.

The 55-gram soil sample differed from that collected by Luna 16 in that the majority (50 to 60 percent) of the rock particles in the newer sample were ancient anorthosite (which consists largely of feldspar) rather than the basalt of the earlier one (which contained about 1 to 2 percent of anorthosite).

Like the Luna 16 soil, samples of the Luna 20 collection were shared with American and French scientists.

02.14.1972

Solar System Exploration

SSE

Space

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Planets

Earth

Moon

Luna 16

Luna 20

Luna 18

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Kazakhstan

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

21 February 1972

25 February 1972

02-14-1972

1972

SPD-SLRSY-3344

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