On January 8, 1973, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 21 mission to land a rover on the moon.
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 unscrewed, 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 unscrewed, 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.
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00:00On this day in space.
00:04On January 8th, 1973, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 21 mission
00:08to land a rover on the moon. This was the second time that the Soviet Union
00:12put a rover on the moon, and it was the sixth successful lunar landing of the Luna program.
00:16Like the other Luna missions, Luna 21 was an uncrewed
00:20robotic spacecraft. It launched on a proton rocket and touched down in the
00:24Lemoyne Crater one week later. About three hours after landing,
00:28it deployed the rover, Lunokhod 2. The rover traveled about 24 miles
00:32and took more than 80,000 photos on the moon before it accidentally rolled into a crater
00:36where it got dust all over its solar panels and died.
00:40And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:44music
00:48music