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Shortly after the successful touchdown, Soviet ground controllers performed a number of checks to determine the spacecraft's exact orientation and location on the moon—information vital for calculating Luna 16's correct homeward course. Then came the main business of the mission. On a signal from earth, an electric-powered drilling device, capable of moving horizontally and vertically, reached out like a mechanical hand; Western observers speculated that it was positioned by controllers watching it on TV. The drill then burrowed about 14 in. into the adjacent lunar soil and brought up a core sample, which was packed into a container, hermetically sealed—possibly with a small explosive charge—and then stowed safely away in the upper half of the spacecraft. The next maneuver was particularly critical. When the earth and moon were in proper alignment, Luna 16's upper-stage rocket was ignited, hurtling the 900-to-1,000-lb. package into an arcing trajectory back toward earth. The lower stage, a four-legged vehicle vaguely resembling the LM's descent stage, remained behind and continued to take temperature and radiation readings. What made the blast-off procedure so important was that Russian designers—probably because of severe weight restrictions made necessary by the limited thrust of their booster rocket—had apparently not built into the spacecraft any capability for mid-course corrections. Thus, had the returning spacecraft been on a course that brought it back into the earth's atmosphere at the wrong angle, the Russian controllers would not have been able to save it by changing course; it would have either been consumed by frictional heat or sent bouncing off the atmosphere and back into deep space.
Onto the Steppes. To the relief of the Russians, the trajectory was perfect and the terrestrial landing was as flawless as the lunar touchdown. As Luna 16 approached the earth, its shielded payload separated from the mother ship, slowed down in the thickening atmosphere, and released drogue parachutes for the final part of its descent. Twelve days after it had been sent aloft from the giant Baikonur space complex 125 miles away. the lunar package was recovered by helicopter from the bleak, sparsely settled Ap steppes of Kazakhstan in central Asia. While the Russians trumpeted news of their accomplishment, the lunar sample was quickly flown to Moscow, where it was turned over for analysis to investigators of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The results, said the Soviet press, would be released to the world's scientific community.