Which uncrewed spacecraft first returned lunar soil samples to Earth? The answer is Luna 16.
Launched by the Soviet Union in September 1970, Luna 16 was the first robotic mission to land on the Moon and return a sample safely to Earth. It touched down in Mare Fecunditatis, or the Sea of Fertility, on September 20 and used an automated drill to collect material from beneath the surface.
The spacecraft returned 101 grams of lunar soil in a small reentry capsule on September 24, 1970. Its ascent stage lifted the sample from the Moon, while the descent stage remained behind on the lunar surface. The capsule parachuted into what is now Kazakhstan.
Luna 16 followed the crewed Apollo 11 sample return by about a year, so it was not the first mission of any kind to bring lunar material to Earth. Its achievement was being the first fully uncrewed lunar sample-return mission. Luna 20 and Luna 24 later returned additional Soviet samples, but neither was first.