September 1970. The lunar gravity was studied from this orbit,
and then the spacecraft was fired into an elliptical orbit with a
perilune of 15.1 km. The main braking engine was fired on 20 
September,  initiating the descent to the lunar surface. The main
descent engine cut off at an altitude of 20 m and the landing jets
cut off at 2 m height at a velocity less than 2.4 m/s, followed by
vertical free-fall. At 05:18 UT, the spacecraft soft landed on the
lunar surface in Mare Foecunditatis (the Sea of Fertility) as
planned, approximately 100 km west of Webb crater. This was
the first landing made in the dark on the Moon, as the Sun had
set about 60 hours earlier. According to the Bochum Radio
Space Observatory in the Federal Republic of Germany, strong
and good quality television pictures were returned by the space-
craft. However, such pictures were not made available to the U.S.
by any sources so there is question as to the reliability of the
Bochum report. The drill was deployed and penetrated to a
depth of 35 cm before encountering hard rock or large fragments
of rock. The column of regolith in the drill tube was then
transferred to the soil sample container. After 26 hours and 25
minutes on the lunar surface, the ascent stage, with the her-
metically sealed soil sample container, lifted off from the Moon
carrying 101 grams of collected material at 07:43 UT on 21
September. The lower stage of Luna 16 remained on the lunar
surface and continued transmission of lunar temperature and
radiation data. The Luna 16 re-entry capsule returned directly
to Earth without any mid-course corrections, made a ballistic
ntry into the Earth's atmosphere on 24 September and
deployed parachutes. The capsule landed approximately 80
km SE of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 03:26 UT.
 

Launch Information:
Launch Date/Time: 1970-09-12 at 13:25:53 UTC