Editing Luna programme (section)

=== Soft landers ===
{{Main|Soft landing (aeronautics)}}
[[File:Kaluga Wikiexpedition (2016-06-11) 0134.jpg|thumb|Luna 9 lander model]]
Soft landers require rocket propulsion to slow their speed sufficiently to prevent the craft's destruction. They can continue to transmit pictures from the surface, and possibly dig into the lunar soil or return other information about the lunar environment. 

Luna program landers had the generic designations of '''Ye-6''' or '''Ye-6M''' ('''E-6''' or '''E-6M''' depending on transliteration from Russian).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Luna Ye-6 |url=https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/luna_e6.htm |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Gunter's Space Page |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Luna Ye-6M |url=https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/luna_e6m.htm |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Gunter's Space Page |language=en}}</ref> Two successful soft landings were achieved out of thirteen attempts from January 1963 to December 1966.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />  

[[Luna 9]] (''E-6 No.13'') became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body in February 1966. It transmitted five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the lunar surface.<ref name=siddiqi1>{{cite book|url=https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf|title=Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016|page=1|last1=Siddiqi|first1=Asif A.|lccn=2017059404|isbn=9781626830424|publisher=NASA History Program Office|edition=second|year=2018|id=SP2018-4041|series=The NASA history series|location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>