Luna 15 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna programme. On 21 July 1969, while Apollo 11 astronauts finished the first human moonwalk, Luna 15, an unmanned Soviet spacecraft in lunar orbit at the time, began its descent to the lunar surface. Launched three days before the Apollo 11 mission, it was the second Soviet attempt to return lunar soil back to Earth with a goal to outstrip the US in sample return under Moon race. The Soviet craft crashed into the Moon at 15:50 UT, hours before the scheduled American lift off from the Moon.