Failed · Partial success
A Soviet sample return attempt whose drilling apparatus was damaged on landing, leaving the lander to operate without returning a sample.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
- Launch site
- Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
- Countries
- Soviet Union
- Mission types
- Lander, Sample return
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Luna 23 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome
Landing
Luna 23 was damaged during landing in Mare Crisium
NASA's Deep Space Chronicle dates the landing to 6 November 1974; the NSSDCA page describes the damage without giving a landing time.
MoonMilestone
The lander continued transmitting for three days after landing
The NSSDCA page gives a three-day duration relative to landing but no exact end-of-contact instant.
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 23 landed hardware: Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data · bounded LROC fixed-site estimate · November 10, 1974 to December 10, 1974
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Luna 23 - NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- LROC Science Operations Team: Coordinates of Lunar Anthropogenic Targets (28 July 2016) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Luna 23 mission, spacecraft and orbital records — NSSDCATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Deep Space Chronicle, NASA/SP-2002-4524, Luna 23 entry (printed pp. 107–108) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 — lunar launch records — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event 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