Luna 24 was the final lunar spacecraft to be launched by the Soviet Union. It was also the last spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon until the landing of China's Chang'e 3 on 14 December 2013, 37 years later.

Luna 24 was based on the Ye-8-5 spacecraft body, consisting of two attached stages, an ascent stage mounted on top of a descent stage. The lander stood 3.96 meters tall and had an unfueled landed mass of 1880 kg. With a full load of fuel its launch mass was between 5600 and 5750 kg.

Luna-24 became the 11th Soviet attempt to return samples of the lunar soil back to Earth with a robotic probe and the third successful mission concluding the entire program.

Aug 18, 2016 · The Luna 24 mission was the culmination of decades of efforts by teams of Soviet scientists and engineers to build some of the most innovative space hardware of the era.

The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the Luna 24 probe was the third Soviet mission to retrieve lunar ground samples (the first two were returned by Luna 16 and 20). The probe landed in the area known as Mare Crisium (Sea of Crisis) at 12.7142 N, 62.2129 E on 18 August 1976.

Luna 24 fue la última nave espacial lunar en ser lanzada por la Unión Soviética. Fue también la última nave espacial que hizo un aterrizaje suave en la Luna hasta el aterrizaje del Chang'e 3 el 14 de diciembre de 2013, 37 años después.

The Luna missions were designed to collect information about the Moon and its environment, not only for scientific purposes but also to be used in the planning of future lunar missions including manned missions to the Moon.

Luna 24 was the final lunar spacecraft to be launched by the Soviet Union. It was also the last spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon until the landing of China's Chang'e 3 on 14 December 2013, 37 years later.

Jan 30, 2010 · Luna 23 and Luna 24 A mosaic of two Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images solves a longstanding puzzle in lunar exploration: just how close together did the Soviet sample return missions Luna 23 and Luna 24 land? Both were sent to Mare Crisium.

Luna 24 (E-8-5M-412) launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome by four-stage Proton rocket into 183 x 246 kilometre orbit around the Earth at 51.5 degrees inclination - its mission is to enter orbit around the Moon, then land and return a soil sample to Earth