Launch of Luna 24

Luna 24 was a Soviet robotic lunar probe, the last mission of the Luna programme and the last spacecraft to visit the Moon for many years. After landing in the Mare Crisium, the spacecraft drilled about two metres into the lunar soil with an automated drill and sealed a sample of the core in a capsule. The return stage then launched from the Moon and brought the capsule to Earth, where it landed in Siberia a few days after launch. About 170 grams of material were returned, including a layered core that gave scientists a record of the soil's history. No further lunar samples were collected until China's Chang'e 5 mission in 2020.

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