Luna 24: The Last Soviet Moon-Sample Return Mission (1976)
Space.com’s On This Day recounts Aug. 9, 1976, when the Soviet Luna 24 launched, landed in Mare Crisium, and returned about 170 grams of lunar soil to Earth on Aug. 22 — the third and final Luna moon-sample return mission. The returned soil carried trace water (~0.1% by mass), a finding that helped advance early lunar-volatile studies. Luna 24 capped a prolific era of robotic lunar exploration even as NASA astronauts had already walked on the Moon, and the article notes subsequent Russian efforts (Luna 25 in 2023, which crashed) and the mission’s hardware (lander, ascent stage, Earth-return capsule) with LRO imagery confirming remnants of Luna hardware on the Moon.