Completed · Success
The third spacecraft to make a successful soft-landing on the Moon, following Luna 9 and Surveyor 1; it landed in the region of Oceanus Procellarum and returned panoramas of the lunar landscape along with regolith density, penetrometer, temperature and radiation measurements.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage
- Launch site
- Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
- Countries
- Soviet Union
- Mission types
- Lander
Chronology
Mission timeline
Deployment
Luna 13 landing capsule separated
Loss of contact
Luna 13 made its last transmission session
The current NSSDCA record places the final session between04:05 and06:13 UT. The earlier04:05 timestamp marked the start of that session; exact clock/receipt conversion remains unresolved.
Moon
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Luna 13 landed capsule: Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data · approximate nominal site, post-landing only · December 25, 1966 to December 26, 1966
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through August 24, 2026
- Luna 13 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Luna 13 mission, spacecraft and orbital records — NSSDCATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Cherkasov et al., Groundmeter-Penetrometer Used on the ALS Luna-13 (1968), ST-INS-LPS-10711 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Deep Space Chronicle, NASA/SP-2002-4524, Luna 13 entry (printed pp. 58–59) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context