Luna programme became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body. It returned five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the Lunar surface. "Luna 10" (March 1966) became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. "Luna 17" (November 1970) and "Luna 21" (January 1973) carried the Lunokhod vehicles, which roamed around on the Moon's terrain. Another major achievement of the Luna programme, with "Luna 16" (September 1970), "Luna 20" (February 1972) and "Luna 24" (August 1976), was the ability to collect samples of lunar soil and return them to Earth. The
Luna programme not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations. The estimated cost of the Luna programme was about $4.5 billion. "Luna 1" (January 1959) missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to fall into orbit around the Sun. "Luna 2" (September 1959) mission successfully hit the Moon's surface, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon. "Luna 3" (October 1959) rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, which can never be seen from Earth. "Luna 9" (February 1966)