Mission Summary
Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to enter orbit around another world, opening the era of orbital exploration of the Moon. Launched March 31, 1966, it was the backup to the failed Kosmos 111 and handed the Soviet Union yet another headline first in the space race.
After a mid-course correction on April 1, Luna 10 slipped into lunar orbit on April 3, 1966, releasing a roughly 250-kilogram instrument compartment into an elliptical path around the Moon. From there it measured the Moon’s weak magnetic field, its radiation environment, and the density of micrometeoroids, while its gamma-ray data suggested that lunar rocks resembled terrestrial basalts.
The mission carried one distinctly Soviet flourish: a set of oscillators programmed to play the Internationale for the 23rd Communist Party Congress. When a note dropped out on the morning of the broadcast, controllers quietly substituted the previous night’s recording and presented it as a live transmission from the Moon. Luna 10 returned data until controllers lost contact on May 30, 1966.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
