Launch of Luna 21

Luna 21 was a Soviet lunar mission launched in January 1973, which landed in Le Monnier crater at the eastern edge of the Sea of Serenity. It carried the rover Lunokhod 2, the second remote-controlled vehicle to be driven on the Moon, which was operated by a team on Earth through cameras. Lunokhod 2 was more advanced than its predecessor, with three television cameras and better instruments, and it travelled much farther, covering about thirty-nine kilometres in some four months. It studied the lunar soil, magnetic fields and light levels, and transmitted many panoramic images. The rover ceased to work in 1973, probably because it overheated after rolling into a crater.

Open on the timeline