Russian Luna Program

The Russian Luna Programme was a series of Moon exploration missions with robotic spacecraft. Three of these missions, Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 returned samples to Earth. Luna 16 was launched on September 12, 1970, Luna 20 on February 14, 1972, and Luna 24 on August 9, 1976. The samples returned contributed significantly to our knowledge of the geology of the Moon from the Moon rocks.