Short answers, pulled from the story.
Luna 9 was an uncrewed Soviet spacecraft that became the first to achieve a soft landing on the Moon on the 3rd of February 1966. It returned the first photographs from the lunar surface and demonstrated that the ground could support a lander, settling a key question for future missions.
Luna 9 landed in Oceanus Procellarum, west of the Reiner and Marius craters, at 18:45:30 GMT on the 3rd of February 1966. In early 2026, researchers published findings identifying a very probable candidate for the precise landing site.
Luna 9 was the twelfth Soviet attempt at a soft lunar landing. The first eleven missions were all unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.
Scientists at Jodrell Bank Observatory in England noticed that Luna 9's signal used the internationally agreed Radiofax format also used by newspapers. The Daily Express rushed a compatible receiver to the observatory, allowing the images to be decoded and published worldwide before the Soviet authorities released them officially.
Luna 9 transmitted nine images including five panoramas, showing nearby rocks and a horizon 1.4 km away, across seven radio sessions totaling 8 hours and 5 minutes. Its radiation detector measured a surface dosage of 30 millirads (0.3 milligrays) per day.
Luna 9 was built by the Lavochkin design bureau after the project was transferred from OKB-1, which was occupied with human lunar expedition planning. It was the first successful deep space probe Lavochkin built, and the bureau went on to design and build almost all subsequent Soviet and Russian lunar and interplanetary spacecraft.