November 17, 1970

Lunokhod 1

Luna 17 lands and deploys Lunokhod 1 on the Moon

The first rover on another world needed 20 seconds to roll down a ramp. Its drivers sat on Earth, steering from television pictures while coping with a minimum 4.1-second control delay.

03:46:50 UT in Mare Imbrium

The Soviet Luna 17 descent stage touched down in Mare Imbrium at 03:46:50 UT on 17 November 1970, at the historically reported position 38°24′ north, 34°47′ west. Published coordinates vary slightly: the original Soviet estimate was later refined using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery.

The lander settled into a crater-like depression, deployed two ramps and stayed put. It was the platform, not a carrier that released anything from orbit.

First—forward

At 06:27:07 UT, controllers commanded Lunokhod 1 down a ramp. It reached the lunar surface in about 20 seconds — under three hours after touchdown.

The eight-wheeled, solar-powered rover massed 756 kilograms and stood about 1.35 metres high and 2.15 metres across. Its deployment made it the first robotic rover to explore the surface of a world beyond Earth.

Driving with a 4.1-second lag

Two five-person ground crews ran it — commander, driver, flight engineer, navigator and antenna operator — working from television images. This was not autonomy in any modern sense.

The minimum control delay was 4.1 seconds, including a 2.6-second signal round trip. The landing site sits about 2,500 km from where Luna 16 had come down.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and event times are solid. Published landing coordinates vary slightly because the original Soviet estimate was later refined using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery.