Apollo 15 was launched on July 26th, 1971, landed on the Moon in the
Hadley Rille area on July 30th,
1971, and returned to Earth on August 7th, 1971. The crew consisted of Dave
Scott, mission commander, Al Worden, command module pilot, and James Irwin,
lunar module pilot. The command and service module was named Endeavour. The
lunar module was called Falcon. Apollo 15 was the first of the longer duration
three day surface missions and was also the first to use the lunar rover, which
greatly extended the range of the lunar astronauts. The astronauts performed
three EVAs for combined period of 18.5 hours, traversing nearly 28 kilometers,
collecting soil and rock samples from twelve locations, performed or deployed
ten experiments, and conducted extensive photography. The climax of the mission
occurred when mission commander Dave Scott dropped a hammer and a falcon
feather onto the airless Moon, thus showing that Galileo’s finding that objects
of different mass fall at the same rate was correct.
Luna 18
Luna 18 was launched on September 2nd, 1971 and entered lunar orbit on September 7th.
It completed fifty four lunar orbits before it was sent to the Moon, impacting
on September 11th.
Luna 19
Luna 19 was launched on September 28th, 1971 and entered lunar orbit on
October 3rd. It conducted studies of lunar gravitational fields and
location of mascons (mass concentrations), as well as the lunar radiation
environment, the gamma-active lunar surface, and the solar wind. The probe also
conducted photography of the lunar surface.
Luna 20
Luna 20 was launched on February 14th, 1972, landed on the lunar
surface in the Apollonius highlands on February 21st and returned to
Earth on February 25th. While on the lunar surface, Luna 30
conducted panoramic photography and retrieved 30 grams of lunar soil.