Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 50th Anniversary of Luna 21 & Lunokhod 2
15 January 1973: The
Luna 21 probe landed on the Moon & just after midnight deployed the rover
Lunokhod 2 ("Moonwalker 2"); the probes lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a
Proton-K/D rocket on 8 January & entered lunar orbit on 12 January;
Lunokhod 2 was the second remotely-controlled rover & traversed thirty-nine kilometers 'til 11 May 1973, five lunar days.
Commentary: Lunokhod 2
traversed as far in its first lunar day as Lunokhod 1
had in its eleven lunar days. Lunokhod 2
traversed farther than the Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle, remote controlled over four months verses human piloted over three days. The rover's controllers on Earth benefitted from the gift of N.A.S.A. lunar survey photographs taken to scout the Apollo 17 landing site, part of the growing American-Soviet cooperation in the run up to 1975's Apollo-Soyuz
joint manned mission.Semper exploro.
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