The first successful soft landing on the Moon occurred in 1966, when the Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft landed on February 3. Unlike an impact probe, Luna 9 made a controlled descent and survived on the lunar surface, where it transmitted the first photographs taken from the Moon.
Luna 9 was part of the Soviet Union’s Luna program and was the twelfth Soviet attempt at a lunar soft landing. Its landing capsule used an unusual design: shortly before touchdown, it was ejected and protected by landing airbags as it struck the surface at high speed. After settling, the capsule opened and deployed its communications and television equipment.
The achievement mattered scientifically as well as politically. The images confirmed that the lunar surface would not swallow a spacecraft in deep dust, an uncertainty that had concerned mission planners before crewed landings. Luna 13 repeated the success later in 1966, while the United States achieved its first successful soft landing with Surveyor 1 in May of that year.