2020-02-03 Mon

Luna 9 was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On 3 February 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on the Moon.

In the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a "space race" hat ultimately saw a series of successful robotic missions. Their earlier robotic missions had already attracted a lot of international attention. Luna 3 flew past the moon in 1959, just two years after the first satellite was sent into space.

The spacecraft launched successfully on Jan. 31, 1966, and got to the moon on Feb. 3. While the entire spacecraft descended to the surface, a landing capsule was ejected just before impact for the soft landing. Luna 9 survived three Earth-days on the surface until its batteries ran down. From the pictures, scientists could tell that the spacecraft had landed near an 82-foot crater.

Several soft landings after Luna 9 happened in quick succession, both by the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States' Surveyor 1 made that country's first landing in May 1966. In December 2013, China sent the Chang'e-3 lander and Yutu rover to the surface followed by India sending “Chandrayaan-2” in the year 2019 which was "98% successful"!

The stamp shown above was a part of the se-tenant pair issued to commemorate the successful landing of the Mission. It was issued on 25th November 1966 with the denomination of 10 Russian kopeks and depicts the image of Luna-9 on Moon's Surface.

Image Courtesy: https://colnect.com/

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