Lost for 60 years, Moon lander now possibly found
After 60 years and 12 days, the Luna-9 spacecraft—the first to ever soft-land on the Moon—may have been spotted using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images.
Two different teams think they've found its remains, but their proposed locations differ.
Luna-9 landed in 1966, sent back some epic panoramic shots, and then its exact spot was lost.
Crowdsourced search and machine-learning analysis
Science communicator Vitaly Egorov's team crowdsourced a search by matching old Luna-9 photos with today's Moon maps, and says he found the lander's likely resting place.
Meanwhile, scientists at University College London (UCL) used a machine-learning algorithm (YOLO-ETA) trained on existing NASA findings to identify candidate features and reported a different possible site.
Upcoming mission to help resolve mystery
Both teams analyzed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images.
Plus, India's Chandrayaan-2 will snap even sharper pictures of the area in March 2026—so we might soon know which team is right!